^? 


1  i    <;'      ^ 


tsf 


mmmam 


PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 


Presented   by  W<£.\^  .CAx-VV\vAT-~Yo'Ws 


BX  6333  .D59  1889 
Dixon,  Thomas,  1864-1946. 
Living  problems  in  religion 
and  social  science 


Living  Problems 


Religion  and  Social  Science 


^/BV 


TPIOMAS    DIXON,   Jr.,  M.A., 

I'ASTOK    OK   THE   TWENTV-THIKD  STREET  liAPTlST   CHI'RCM,  NEW    YORK   CITY! 
LATE   OK   THE    Ul'DI.EY    SI'REET   CHTRCH,   BOSTON. 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    T.     D  I  L  L  I  xN  G  H  A  M 

(SUCCESSOR   TO    LEE,  SHEPARU  &    DILLINGHAM) 

Nos.  71S  AND  720  Broadway 

i38q 


Copyright,   18S9, 
By  THOMAS   DIXON,   Jr. 

AH  Kie^kis  Jieserz'eif. 


PRESS   OF 

THE    PUBLISHERS'    Pf.lKTlKG    COMPANY, 

157-169    WILLIAM    STREET, 

NEW    YORK. 


^pcdijcatcd 

TO     MY     WIFE, 

IN    WHOSE    DEAR    PERSON    THE    DAY-DREAMS     AND     IDEALS   OF 
MY    BOYHOOD 

LIVE    AS    THE    SWEETEST    REALITIES    OF    MANHOOD, 

THE   INSPIRATION    OF    WHOSE    LOVE, 

AS   THE   VOICE    OF    GOD. 

CALLED    ME 

FROM    THE   VALLEY    OF    THE    WORLD's    AMBITIONS 

TO    THE    HEIGHTS    OF    NOBLER    AIMS, 

UNTO    HER,    WITH    TENDEREST    LOVE,    THIS   BOOK    I    BRING, 

A    SHEAF  FROM  THE  FIRST    FRUITS   OF   THAT 
BETTER    LIFE. 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


These  condensed  sermons  and  addresses 
are  given  to  the  public,  with  the  hope  and 
prayer  that  they  may  prove  as  helpful  to  a 
wide  circle  of  readers  as  they  seem  to  have 
been  to  those  who  first  heard  them  delivered 
extempore.  The  treatment  I  have  tried  to 
make  fresh  and  suggestive,  rather  than  pro- 
found, or  exhaustive.  I  owe  much  to  the  great 
thinkers  of  ancient  and  modern  times;  but 
what  I  have  used  from  them,  I  trust  has  first 
passed  through,  and  become  a  part  of,  my 
own  heart  and  life.  The  addresses  on  cur 
rent  questions  of  Social  Science  were  delivered 
before    mass    meetings    in    Boston    and    New 

York. 

T.  D.,  Jr. 

New  York,  Oct.  lo,  1889. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


1.  The  Mission  of  the  Church,  .         .         .       i 

2.  The  Minister's  Sphere,        ...  27 

3.  Man  vs.  Fate,    ......     50 

4.  The  Question  of  Hell,        .  71 

5.  Miracles  and    Robert    Elsmere;    The 

Presumption  Against  a  Miracle,      .  .     8^ 

6.  Miracles    and    Robert    Elsmere  ;   The 

Question  of  Evidence,  ...  97 

7.  The  Mystery  OF  Pain,  .         .         .no 

8.  Progress,      .         .         .         .         .         .129 

9.  Playing  the  Fool;   Or,  the  Problem  of 

Folly, 144 

10.   What  is  Love  ?     .         .         .         .         .        158 


11.  The  Temperance  Problem,       .         .         .   167 

12.  Jesuitism,       .         .         .         .         .         .189 

13.  The  School  War, 211 

14.  The  Southern  Question,     .         .         .        244 


LIVING   PROBLEMS 
In  Religion  and  Social  Science. 


THE    MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you.— John, 


XX.   21 


The  last  act  of  our  Master  on  earth  was 
thus  to  lay  the  mantle  of  his  mission  on  our 
shoulders.  Sublime  honor  it  is,  and  yet  one 
freighted  with  sublimer  responsibility. 

Christ  says  to  the  Church :  "  You  are  the  in- 
struments of  my  will— the  medium  through 
which  I  shall  operate  on  the  world.  My  work 
is  your  work.  What  I  came  into  the  world  to 
do  I  leave  unto  you  to  complete.  My  mission 
is  your  mission."  To  understand  our  own 
work,  then,  we  turn,  for  a  moment  to  the  Mas- 
ter's life  and  learn  the  import  of  His  mission. 
We  will  take  these  definitions  from  His  own 
lips.     I  take  several  of  the  principal  ones  given 


2  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

in  the  record.  In  John,  xii.  47:  "I  came  not 
to  judge  the  world,  but  to  save  the  worlds  In 
Luke,  xix.  10:  "The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  In  Mark, 
ii.  17:  "I  caine  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  the 
sinners."  In  Matthew,  xx.  28:  "The  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister." 

You  observe  in  these  definitions  certain  nega- 
tive facts.  Let  us  first  remove  these  negatives 
in  order  that  we  may  give  a  clear  conception 
of  the  positive  elements  of  our  mission.  John 
and  Mark  say:  "  Came  not  \.o Judge  the  world," 
"  jiot  to  call  the  righteous."  That  is,  Christ 
says:  "My  work  is  constructive  rather  than 
destructive.  I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the 
life,  but  I  do  not  sit  in  harsh,  censorious  judg- 
ment on  your  acceptance  or  rejection  of  me. 
The  Father  is  now  judge.  I  am  not  come  to 
judge,  but  to  save."  So  he  says  to  us:  Judge 
not,  but  preach,  proclaim,  work,  for  the  night 
is  coming.  As  the  Father  was  then  the  judge 
— not  Christ — so  Christ  is  now  the  judge,  while 
we  are  to  fill  his  former  place.     And  if  he  did 


THE  AflSSIOAT  OF  THE  CHURCH.  3 

not  come  to  call  the  righteous,  it  is  impossible 
that  his  Church  should  be  a  ferryboat  specially 
chartered  to  take  a  specified  number  of  the 
fortunate  elect  from  this  world  to  the  next. 
Nor  is  it  a  special  car  chartered  for  the  special 
purpose  of  transporting  the  saints  to  heaven 
without  contamination  from  the  world.  Yet, 
simple  as  is  this  lesson,  it  seems  to  be  one  of 
the  hardest  for  our  churches  to  learn.  Yes, 
all  of  us,  from  the  little  mission  church  up  to 
the  great  stone  pile  on  the  corner  of  the 
avenue,  we  are  more  or  less  impregnated  with 
the  idea  that  we  are  here  to  get  rather  than  to 
give.  That  we  are  here  to  collect,  to  hoard 
up  all  the  good  we  can  out  of  the  world,  rather 
than  to  give  out  to  struggling,  dying  sinners 
health  and  warmth  and  light  and  life  and 
strength  and  love — that  we  may  make  the 
world  brighter  and  gladder  because  we  are 
here. 

Again,  says  Matthew :  "  The  Son  of  Man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minis- 
ter." And  yet  the  majority  of  us  think  we 
are  here  to  be  ministered  unto.     Here  is  some- 


4  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

body  who  brings  a  letter  to  the  church  and 
joins,  and  in  a  month  or  two  is  ready  to  go 
elsewhere.  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  Well,  I 
came  to  the  church  two  months  ago,  and  no- 
body has  been  to  see  us,  no  one  has  shown  us 
any  attention — any  consideration  at  all!  "  So 
you  want  to  go  ?  Well,  may  joy  go  with  you 
and  peace  reign  behind  you,  for  if  you  came 
into  the  church  to  receive  attention,  to  be 
petted,  to  be  ministered  unto,  the  sooner  you 
go  the  better  for  you  and  the  better  for  the 
church  of  Christ.  These  are  the  sort  of  people 
who  make  up  the  adJicrcnts  of  a  church.  "  How 
many  adherents  have  you  ? "  we  sometimes 
hear  asked.  The  Lord  save  the  church  from 
adherents!  All  that  is  necessary  to  sink  a 
ship — any  ship — the  mightiest  Cunarder  that 
ploughs  the  waves — is  to  allow  a  sufficient 
number  of  adherents  to  become  attached  to 
her  sides.  Very  little  barnacles  they  may  be, 
but  enough  of  them  will  sink  her  as  surely  as 
if  you  had  cut  a  hole  in  her  bottom. 

Then  how  many  of  our  dear,  good  church 
members  think  that  we  are  here  to  be  fed  simply. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  5 

Their  religion  consists  in  beiyig  fed.  And  they 
want  it  done  just  right,  too.  They  want  the 
napkin  adjusted  about  their  Sunday  clothes, 
and  then  the  milk  administered  with  a  spoon 
— condensed  milk,  too,  all  cream  and  fresh. 
They  want  it  just  so  warm  and  no  warmer — 
not  hot;  just  so  cool — not  cold.  But  I  imag- 
ine I  hear  some  good  old  patriarch  in  Israel 
saying:  "So,  so,  my  young  brother;  but 
don't  the  Master  say  to  you,  '  Feed  my 
sheep?'"  Ah,  yes.  He  does  exactly!  And 
how  do  you  feed  a  sheep?  When  you  feed  a 
sheep  do  you  back  him  up  in  a  cushioned  stall, 
carefully  seat  him,  put  a  napkin  about  his  neck, 
and  feed  him  on  milk  with  a  spoon  ?  I  never 
saw  it  after  that  fashion.  No.  The  shepherd 
took  his  flock  out  in  the  open  fields,  carpeted 
with  rich  grasses;  on  the  hillsides  and  moun- 
tain tops,  where  they  browsed  on  the  budding 
shrubbery,  so  that  sufficient  exercise  is  taken 
to  properly  digest  and  assimilate  what  is  eaten. 
So  should  the  pastor  lead  his  flock  to  this  great 
Book.  Here  are  broad,  rich  fields  and  smiling 
meadows,   through   which    runs   the   laughing 


6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

brook;  yonder  lies  the  long  range  of  hills,  and 
yonder  lies  the  mountain  crag,  whose  summits 
the  eye  of  man  cannot  measure,  for  they  are 
lost  amid  the  azure  blue  of  heaven,  while  below 
lie  green  pastures  beside  still  and  beautiful 
waters.  Here  is  food  in  abundance;  take  and 
eat. 

Having  thus  set  aside  these  negative  ele- 
ments, we  come  to  the  positive  ones  in  the 
Master's  and  our  own  mission.  The  remain- 
ing elements  in  these  definitions  can  all  be 
condensed  into  a  single  positive  proposition, 
to  which  let  us  address  ourselves.  What, 
then,  is  the  positive  mission  of  the  Master,  and, 
therefore,  our  mission?  "77/^  Son  of  Man 
came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost — to 
save  the  zvorldr 

I.  The  first  element — The  Son  of  Man  came  to 
seek,  Alas,  how  often  we  forget  this.  Most  of 
us  seem  to  think  our  active  duty  is  done  when 
we  have  built  a  church,  paid  for  it,  opened  its 
doors  and  invited  the  lost  to  come  by  writing 
a  sign  over  the  door  and  an  advertisement  in 
the  paper. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  7 

Let  us  see  what  the  Master  says:  A  certain 
man  made  a  great  feast  and  issued  the  pro- 
clamation, Come,  for  all  things  are  now  ready. 
But  they  began  to  make  excuses.  One  had 
bought  a  field,  the  other  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
another  had  married ;  and  there  were  empty 
seats  at  the  supper.  Then,  said  the  Master  to 
the  servants,  "  Go  out  quickly  into  the  streets 
and  lanes  of  the  city  and  bring  in  hither  the 
poor,  and  maimed  and  blind."  And  they  said, 
"  It  is  done,  Lord,  and  yet  there  is  room." 
Then  go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges  and 
constrain  them  to  come  in  that  my  house  may 
be  filled. 

Are  there  ever  vacant  seats  in  this  church 
on  the  Lord's  Day?  Then  it  is  your  fault. 
Hear  the  voice  of  Jesus  crying.  Go  out  into  the 
highways  and  hedges  and  constrain  them  to 
come  in  !  I  care  not  how  beautiful  the  house, 
how  soft  the  cushions  in  the  pews,  it  is  not 
pleasing  unto  God  unless  those  seats  are  filled 
with  throbbing  human  hearts.  And  you,  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  church,  are  responsible  if 
it  is  so,  for  this  commission  was  given  to  the 


8  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

rank  and  file,  the  common  priesthood  of  be- 
lievers. 

Constructed  on  some  modern  ideas  of  church 
work  how  would  the  parable  of  the  lost  sheep 
read  ?  Somewhat  thus :  And  a  certain  man, 
when  he  found  that  some  of  his  sheep  were 
lost,  went  out  near  the  wilderness  and  built  a 
handsome  sheep  shelter,  and  on  the  door  wrote 
the  sign,  "  Any  lost  sheep  straying  near  this 
wilderness  hard  by,  if  he  will  present  his  cre- 
dentials, and  give  good  references  to  the  com- 
mittee in  charge,  will  be  admitted  to  shelter 
after  due  deliberation  and  examination  and 
consultations."  Did  the  Master  say  this  ? 
No !  But  the  shepherd  went  out  on  the  moun- 
tains wild  and  bare, 

"  And  although  the  road  was  rough  and  steep. 

He  goes  to  the  desert  to  find  the  sheep, 

But  none  of  the  ransomed  ever  knew 

How  dark  was  the  night  that  the  Lord  passed  through 

Ere  He  found  His  sheep  that  was  lost. 

Out  in  the  desert  He  heard  its  cry. 

Sick  and  helpless  and  ready  to  die. 
'  Lord,  whence  are  those  blood  drops  all  the  way. 

That  mark  out  the  mountain's  track?  ' 

They  were  shed  for  one  who  had  gone  astray 

Ere  the  Shepherd  could  bring  him  back. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  9 

But  all  through  the  mountains  thunder-riven, 

And  up  from  the  rocky  steep. 

There  arose  a  cry  to  the  gates  of  Heaven, 
'  Rejoice  !  for  I  have  found  my  sheep ! ' 

And  the  angels  echo  round  the  throne, 
'Rejoice,  for  the  Lord  brings  back  His  own  ! ' " 

Such  was  his  divine  mission — such  is  yours. 
The  Son  of  Man  came  to  seek  that  which  was 
lost  !  "  As  the  Father  hath  sent  me  even  so 
send  I  you."  Remember  that  Christ  spoke 
that  sentence  not  to  the  twelve  apostles  simply, 
but  to  all  the  disciples  assembled — to  the  whole 
church,  \.o  yoii.  Do  not  think  that  you  can  do 
this  work  by  proxy.  Some  people  think  that 
they  hire  a  minister  to  do  their  duties  to  God. 
It  cannot  be  done,  my  friend.  You  cannot  dele- 
gate your  own  personal  duties  to  some  one 
else.  I  cannot  perform  the  duties  of  the  least 
child  in  my  church.  Each  one  must  give  an 
account  of  himself  unto  God.  I  have  my  work, 
and  you  have  yours. 

II.  The  second  element — ^^And  to  save  that 
which  is  lost.'"  Yes,  it  would  be  a  pity  to  bring 
them  in  from  the  highways  and  hedges  and  from 
the  mountains,  and  then  let  them  perish,  let 


lo  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

them  starve.  So  this  church  of  Christ  is  to  be 
a  savhig  church.  And  to  have  this  saving 
quahty  it  must  be  a  praying  cJmrch,  whose 
members  know  how  to  bring  their  burdens,  their 
joys,  their  sorrows  to  the  Lord,  and  tell  all  life's 
stories  to  Him;  in  whose  hearts  and  lives  the 
Holy  Spirit  dwells  because  they  are  ready  to 
receive  the  Spirit ;  a  church  that  answers  its 
own  prayers  as  far  as  human  power  can  go,  and 
then  asks  God  in  faith  to  do  the  rest,  and  He 
does.  He  never  does  anything  we  can  do  our- 
selves. 

When  Christ  stood  before  the  grave  of  Laz- 
arus he  commanded  those  men  to  roll  the  stone 
away!  Why  did  he  not  roll  it  himself  by  su- 
pernatural power?  Because  it  could  be  done  by 
natural  power.  Then  he  called  forth  the  dead 
and  said,  "Loose  the  grave  clothes;"  again 
commanding  that  man  do  that  which  need  not 
call  forth  supernatural  effort.  So  the  Lord 
never  answered  the  prayer  of  the  old  sinner 
who  prayed  that  He  would  feed  the  poor,  when 
his  own  corn  crib  was  bursting  with  grain  and 
he  would  not  give  a  nubbin. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  1 1 

The  saving  church  is  always  the  sacrificing 
church — ready  to  sacrifice  money  and  manhood. 
Money!  God  is  not  poor.  The  wealth  of  the 
universe  is  His.  Not  because  of  His  poverty  or 
weakness  does  He  command  us  to  give,  but  for 
our  own  benefit,  because  it  is  a  sweet  privilege. 

A  poor  widow  lay  dying  the  other  day  in 
one  of  the  back  streets  of  one  of  our  great 
cities.  The  only  soul  near  was  her  little 
ragged  boy,  and  as  he  gazed  into  the  dying 
face,  she  said,  "  Do  not  be  afraid,  my  boy,  God 
will  take  care  of  you  !  "  Two  days  later  that 
boy,  who  had  not  tasted  food  in  all  that  time, 
stood  shivering  and  gazingappealingly  into  the 
faces  of  the  throng  that  hurried  by.  He  asked 
a  gentleman  for  a  penny,  told  him  his  sad  story, 
took  him  by  the  hand  and  led  him  down  into 
the  squalid  home  where  the  dead  body  lay  on 
a  pile  of  rags.  The  gentleman  took  the  boy 
home,  adopted  him  and  cared  for  him  as  his 
own.  God  had  cared  for  him,  but  He  had  hon- 
ored that  man  by  making  him  a  co-worker  in 
a  divine  mission.  So  does  He  honor  us  with 
the  privilege  of  giving. 


12  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

The  man  who  refuses  to  give  to  the  cause  of 
Christ  is  not  a  Christian.  He  need  not  tell  me 
about  his  religion — he  has  none.  A  man  who 
has  faith  in  God  will  invest  in  God.  A  man 
who  is  converted  is  ready  to  help  on  the  work. 
What  would  you  think  if  a  man  were  drowning 
out  in  the  river,  and  you  should  set  out  in  your 
boat  to  rescue  him,  and,  pulling  with  might 
and  main,  reach  him  in  time  to  lift  him  in  the 
boat  and  save  him.  Then  suppose  you  say  to 
him,  "  I  am  tired  and  weak  from  the  heavy 
struggle.  Will  you  please  take  an  oar  and 
help  as  we  pull  for  the  shore  ?  "  And  the  man 
says,  "  Excuse  me.  I  thought  this  was  a  free 
salvation.  You  put  me  in  this  boat,  now  I'll 
let  you  row  me  ashore !  "  What  ought  you  to 
do  with  such  a  man  ?  What  could  you  do  ex- 
cept seize  him  by  the  nape  of  the  neck  and  the 
heels  and  plunge  him  as  near  the  bottom  as 
you  could  ?  Save  such  a  man  ?  How  could 
you  ?     Nothing  there  to  save! 

But  money  is  not  the  only  thing  or  the  most 
important  thing  we  are  called  on  to  give. 
Money,  after  all,  is   easy  to  get,  but  the  thing 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  13 

that  counts  and  that  God  demands  above  all 
things  else  is  your  manhood  and  womanhood, 
your  individuality,  yourself,  your  living,  throb- 
bing personality.  I  know  a  man  worth  a  mill- 
ion who  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  draws  his 
check  for  a  thousand  dollars,  hands  it  to  his 
church  treasurer  and  says :  "  Take  this,  do  what 
you  please  with  it — but  don't  trouble  me  any 
more  this  year  about  anything!"  I  tell  you, 
my  friend,  God  does  not  want  your  money  in 
that  way.  He  wants  yoii!  Your  time,  your 
care,  your  personality. 

And  then  the  saving  church  is  one  that 
knows  how  to  use  the  Word.  This  Word  is  the 
great  weapon  given  you  by  which  the  world  is 
to  be  conquered.  If  you  do  not  know  how  to 
wield  it  how  can  you  dare  enter?  Two  fools 
met  near  Paris  recently  and  fought  a  duel. 
Suppose  one  of  them  had  known  nothing  of 
the  use  of  the  sword,  you  would  have  pro- 
nounced him  mad !  Do  you  know  how  to  use 
tlie  sword  ?  Do  you  know  how  to  parry  a  blow 
with  it  ?  Do  you  know  its  temper,  its  capac- 
ity 1     Do  you  know  how  to  strike  }     How  to 


14  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

defend  yourself,  and  how  to  thrust  its  glitter- 
ing blade  into  the  marrow  of  the  foe  ?  To  be 
a  saving  church  we  must  know  something  of 
this. 

III.  The  third  element — what  is  to  be  saved 
—  That  which  is  lost.  "  The  Son  of  Man  came 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost."  What 
is  lost?  What  an  atmosphere  of  horror  clings 
to  that  word  "  lost,"  to  its  accent,  intonation, 
every  letter!  The  human  heart  leaps  in  pity 
and  terror  at  the  sound.     Lost! 

A  few  years  ago  the  news  was  flashed  over 
the  wires  to  the  uttermost  limits  of  the  earth 
that  a  little,  curly-haired  boy  named  Charlie 
Ross  was  lost!  And  a  world  was  thrilled  with 
horror  at  the  thought!  Oh,  how  many  loving 
mothers  woke  in  the  morning,  looked  into  the 
faces  of  their  own  dear  little  ones,  while  a  tear 
filled  the  eye  as  they  thought  of  that  desolate 
home!  How  eagerly  we  read  the  papers, 
watching  and  waiting  for  some  news  from  the 
lost  one.  Lost!  Each  letter  drips  with  con- 
densed horror!  What  is  lost  ?  Lost — a  world! 
Swinging    somewhere   in    space    between   the 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  15 

planets  Venus  and  Mars — lost  a  world !  Not 
simply  one  boy  or  girl,  but  millions  of  bright- 
eyed  boys  and  girls,  noble  boys  and  girls,  noble 
men  and  women,  lost,  wandering  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  sin,  exposed  to  a  thousand  dangers  of 
body  and  soul;  out  in  the  deserts,  bleak  and 
bare;  on  mountain  crags,  wild  and  trackless; 
sick  and  helpless  and  ready  to  die!  O  God, 
can  Thy  children  be  indifferent  to  such  a  mis- 
sion! How  the  thought  should  thrill  the  soul 
with  divine  heroism  I  Can  any  man  slumber 
with  such  a  work  upon  him  ?  But  how  are  we 
to  save  the  world  ? 

If  it  is  to  be  done  the  slumbering  power  of 
our  churches  must  be  developed.  The  whole 
church  must  be  up  and  doing — not  simply  the 
little  church  within  the  church.  There  is 
always  an  old  guard  in  every  church,  on  which 
the  pastor  can  always  depend,  and  they  gen- 
erally do  nearly  everything,  but  if  this  mighty 
work  is  to  be  accomplished  it  is  to  be  done  by 
the  rank  and  file  all  bearing  their  part  in  the 
conflict.  How  long  would  it  take  the  Baptist 
churches  alone  to  take  the  world  for  Christ  if 


l6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

each  one  of  us  who  profess  His  name  should 
bring  one  new  soul  into  the  kingdom  each 
year — a  little  thing  to  do— just  bring  one  soul 
to  Christ  in  a  whole  year.  And  yet,  if  we 
could  only  do  that,  the  Baptist  churches  alone 
could  take  this  world  for  Christ  in  less  than 
nine  years — yes,  every  continent  of  earth,  every 
island  of  the  seas,  every  nation,  every  tongue, 
every  tribe  that  inhabits  the  globe!  Yet,  how 
few  of  us  do  this  ?  Oh,  how  many  church 
members  we  have  who  are  buried  beneath 
cushioned  pews  and  gilded  walls;  buried  be- 
neath stone  and  cement  and  glittering  spires; 
buried!  and  buried  alive!  Oh,  the  crime  of  it! 
If  this  work  is  to  be  done  we  must  realize, 
too,  that  Christianity  is  revolutionary  and 
means  war,  and  work.  You  have  entered  upon 
a  tremendous  conflict!  The  very  mission  of 
your  belief  is  as  terrible  as  an  army  with  ban- 
ners. You  should  go  forth  to  this  battle  armed 
and  all  in  trim,  with  head  erect  and  eye  fixed 
upon  the  foe.  Go  with  the  conscious  tread  of 
a  conscious  conqueror  knowing  that  the  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth  is  at  your  right  hand. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  I? 

This  Christian  warfare  can  never  be  waged 
successfully  on  the  hospital  idea.  What  army 
ever  achieved  victory  that  made  its  hospital 
the  foremost  portion  of  its  work.  Suppose 
Gen.  Grant,  during  those  last  days  of  terrific 
carnage,  had  said  to  his  army  of  200,ooo  men, 
"  I  detail  the  flower  of  this  army  to  hospital 
service.  We  have  10,000  men  who  have  the 
measles  and  the  mumps,  and  several  thousand 
wounded.  We  will  now  nurse  them  before 
any  more  fighting  is  done.  I  will  spend  my 
time  tying  up  stubbed  toes  and  picking  splin- 
ters out  of  men  s  fingers!  Charge  on  the  hos- 
pitals!" Had  you  run  the  Northern  army 
on  that  principle  it  would  have  taken  Lee  just 
about  ten  days  to  have  dictated  terms  of  peace 
from  the  White  House  steps. 

Some  of  us  think  that  the  church  is  built 
for  purposes  of  defence  simply.  The  church 
is  no  fort  behind  which  shivering  cowards  are 
to  crouch.  It  is  not  built  for  defensive  but 
aggressive  warfare. 

During  the  battle  of  Manassas,  it  is  said  that 
an  officer  passing  over  the  field  found  a  sub- 


1 8  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

ordinate  crouching  behind  a  haystack  trem- 
bling from  head  to  foot.  Coming  up  to  the 
spot,  he  asked  :  "  What  sort  of  a  place  is  that 
for  you,  sir  ?  "  When  he  was  greeted  with  the 
eager  reply,  "  Do — why,  do  you  really  think 
the  bullets  can  come  through  ?  "  In  the  thought 
of  personal  safety  the  poor  coward  had  lost 
the  conception  of  the  very  object  of  his  com- 
mission. Sometimes  weak-kneed  Christians 
come  to  me  with  the  question,  "  Do  you  think  I 
am  safe  ?  Do  you  think  the  bullets  can  come 
through  ?  "  What  ?  come  through  the  church 
wall  ?  No,  I  do  not  tliink  anything  about  it. 
I  knozv  it !  The  devil  can  get  you  off  this 
front  seat  just  as  easily  as  from  the  back  one 
— can  take  you  out  of  the  pulpit  just  as  easily 
as  off  the  door  steps. 

To  accomplish  such  a  mission  means  work 
as  well  as  war — hard  work,  some  of  it  dirty 
work.  I  know  some  Christians,  though,  who 
are  the  nicest  sort  of  people,  but  they  do  not 
want  to  soil  their  hands  with  the  rough  work. 
Oh,  those  dainty  hands!  Lord  help  us. 
Crows,  here  we  live  spending  our  time  smooth- 


THE  MISSIOM  OF  THE  CHURCH.  1 9 

ing  our  dark  feathers.  Crows,  we  know  we 
are,  and  yet  expect  to  some  day  suddenly 
blossom  out  in  heaven  in  the  shape  of  night- 
ingales and  astonish  the  celestial  hosts  with 
our  wonderful  voices.  The  choir  will  cease  its 
divine  melody,  while  one  angel  looks  at  the 
other  and  exclaims,  "  What  is  that? "  I  am 
afraid  Christians  are  not  translated  into  heaven 
by  that  process. 

I  am  afraid  something  is  the  matter  if  we 
are  too  nice  to  do  the  Lord's  work!  For  there 
was  a  day  when  Christ,  the  King  of  kings,  and 
Lord  of  lords,  descended  from  the  royal  throne 
of  the  Heavens,  laid  aside  His  diadem  that 
outshone  the  sun,  laid  aside  the  jeweled  sceptre 
of  the  universe,  and  came  down  to  this  wicked 
old  world, — down  through  all  grades  of  society 
He  came,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowliest,  shed- 
ding joy  and  light  and  life  as  He  came.  He 
stooped  to  save  even  the  lowest  wretch — yes 
down  in  the  lowest  depths  of  life's  darkest  and 
meanest  prison  cell  He  came,  and  then  reached 
out  His  hand  to  the  guilty,  tattered  wretch 
who  lay  there  and  said  :  "  My  Brother,  I  have 


20  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

come  all  the  way  from  heaven  to  earth  to  save 
you !  " 

What  sort  of  church  would  we  have  if  these 
principles  were  carried  out  ? 

1.  Such  a  church  would  be  liberal.  A  mean, 
stingy  man  couldn't  stay  in  it.  There  would 
be  much  bustle  and  stir,  energy  and  power — 
in  short,  too  much  life.  It  would  shatter  his 
nerves.  He  never  could  stand  it.  He  would 
have  nervous  prostration.  He  would  leave  so 
easily  you  wouldn't  know  he  had  gone.  He 
would  fold  his  tent  like  an  Arab  and  silently 
steal  away! 

2.  Such  a  church  would  be  united  always, 
standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  a  single 
grand  thought  ever  before  them,  and  moving 
toward  that  end  in  a  solid  phalanx.  Such 
unity,  too,  would  be  genuine.  Not  such  a 
unity  as  an  old  deacon  once  affirmed  of  his 
church.  They  had  been  distracted  by  terrible 
factions  and  divisions.  His  friend  asked  him 
one  day:  "Well,  deacon,  how  are  you  getting 
on,  now?"  "Well,  we  are  united  at  last." 
"Is  it  possible.     How  did  it    come  about?" 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  2 1 

"  Frozen !  frozen  through  from  top  to  bottom, 
solid  as  a  rock."  No,  not  such  a  unity  as  that, 
but  a  union  such  as  is  made  by  laying  one 
piece  of  red-hot  iron  on  another,  and  striking 
across  the  anvil  until  welded  as  one  piece  that 
will  stand  the  suns  of  summer,  the  winds  and 
snows  of  a  thousand  winters 

3.  Such  a  church,  too,  would  be  a  joyous  one. 
It  would  not  be  filled  with  moping,  shivering, 
doubting  Christians.  Have  you  a  joyous  re- 
ligion, my  friend  ?  If  not,  go  bring  some  lost 
sinner  into  the  fold  and  taste  and  see  that  the 
Lord  is  good.  I  have  not  been  in  the  service 
long,  but  nothing  can  rob  me  of  the  joy  of 
some  of  its  hours.  I  remember  one  night,  when 
I  first  entered  the  work,  and  was  preaching 
in  Raleigh,  there  came  into  the  inquiry  room 
after  the  sermon  an  old  man  of  about  sixty. 
He  was  a  stranger  to  me,  and  apparently  to 
everybody  else  but  an  elderly  gentleman  who 
accompanied  him.  He  seemed  in  the  greatest 
distress  imaginable.  I  began  to  talk  with  him 
and  try  to  show  him  the  way  of  life.  He 
groaned  and  turned  from  side  to  side  as  though 


22  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

he  were  choking  or  smothering.  At  last  he 
exclaimed,  "  O  my  young  friend,  I've  been 
working  on  this  problem  forty  years  and  I 
can't  see  it !  "  "  Well,"  I  said,  "  you  have  been 
working  on  it  forty  years,  and  it's  too  hard  a 
problem — you  can't  work  it  out.  Suppose, 
now,  you  give  it  all  to  Christ,  and  let  Him  work 
it  out  for  you."  I  turned  and  left  him  and 
had  not  walked  five  steps  before  he  leaped  up 
with  a  shout  that  made  the  very  building  ring 
as  he  fell  on  the  neck  of  his  old  friend  and 
cried  like  a  child  for  very  joy.  I  can  see  him 
yet,  with  the  great  tears  rolling  down  his  fur- 
rowed cheeks,  his  gray  locks  streaming  back 
from  his  upturned  face,  that  seemed  lit  by  the 
light  of  heaven.  He  went  out  from  that  room 
into  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and  I  never 
saw  him  again ;  but  no  power  on  earth  can  rob 
me  of  the  joy  of  that  hour  or  its  memory,  for 
I  expect  to  meet  him  some  day  within  the 
golden  gates. 

Christian  friends,  will  you  not  consecrate 
yourselves  to  this  glorious  work  ?  There  is  a 
work  for  you.     Be  up  and  doing.     Ah,  you 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  23 

say  you  are  weak  and  timid  and  unfit  for  the 
Master's  service.  Not  so!  Your  very  weak- 
ness and  helplessness  God  makes  the  instru- 
ment through  which  He  will  display  His  power 
and  majesty.  Besides  you  are  not  too  weak — 
the  smallest  child,  the  feeblest  old  woman  has 
her  work. 

An  old  negro  washerwoman  was  walking 
along  the  railroad  track  near  Louisville,  Ky., 
one  morning  just  after  daybreak  going  to  her 
day's  work,  when  just  in  front  of  her,  she  ob- 
served the  bridge  that  spanned  a  deep  ravine 
had  burned  away  in  the  night.  The  rails  only 
remained  stretching  treacherously  across  the 
gulf.  She  remembered  that  the  early  express 
was  about  due,  and  with  all  haste  started  back 
to  the  little  station  a  mile  away  to  give  the 
alarm.  She  had  not  gone  more  than  a  few 
hundred  yards  before  she  heard  the  roar  of  the 
coming  train,  and  in  a  moment  more  the  great 
engine  swept  round  the  curve  just  in  front  of 
her.  She  tried  to  tear  her  apron  from  her  waist 
for  a  signal — the  string  seemed  never  so  strong 
and  stubborn  as  then,  but  at  last  she  tore  it 


24  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

loose  and  waved  it  frantically,  determined  to 
stand  on  that  track  and  die  or  stop  the  train. 
At  last  she  was  seen,  the  engine  reversed  and 
brought  to  a  stand  only  a  few  feet  from  her. 
The  engineer  thrust  his  head  out  the  cab,  and 
cried,  "  Well,  old  woman,  are  you  crazy — what's 
the  matter  ?  "  "  Oh,  sah,  de  bridge  is  all  burned 
down,  'deed  it  is,  sah, — you'll  be  lost  if  you  go 
on !  "  The  engineer  leaped  from  his  cab,  and 
the  passengers  from  the  cars,  and  there  before 
them  saw  the  awful  death  they  had  barely  es- 
caped. Friend  embraced  friend,  and  mothers 
fell  upon  the  necks  of  children  as  they  realized 
their  great  deliverance.  The  old  woman,  as 
she  saw  their  tears  and  joy,  began  to  dance 
and  shout  for  joy  herself.  They  drew  near 
her  and  offered  her  their  money  and  jewelry, 
but  she  refused  to  touch  a  thing,  saying  she 
was  afraid  it  would  take  her  joy  away  for 
what  she  had  been  able  to  do,  and  went  her 
way,  with  a  light  heart,  to  her  day's  work. 
You  can  do  at  least  as  much  as  that  old  woman. 
Down  the  track  of  life  there  comes  thundering 
toward    you    some    reckless   man    or   woman. 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH.  25 

You  see  the  bridge  is  down,  and  the  gulf  yawns 
before  them.  They  do  not  see  it  perhaps — at 
least  you  can  stand  on  that  track  and  with  the 
blood-stained  banner  of  Christ  flag  the  coming 
train ! 

You  may  be  weak  and  timid,  but  remember 
that  success  does  not  depend  on  your  weak- 
ness or  strength,  but  on  God!  A  little  child 
by  touching  a  screw  can  in  an  instant  flood  a 
great  building  with  the  glare  of  an  electric 
blaze.  But  what  makes  the  light  ?  The  child  ? 
No.  But  there  is  at  the  central  station  a  great 
dynamo,  perhaps  of  500  horse  power,  that 
sends  from  its  throbbing  heart  the  pulsing  fire 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  city. 

When  the  excavations  at  Hell  Gate  were 
completed  after  years  of  work,  and  the  dyna- 
mite all  in  place  and  everything  in  readiness, 
it  is  said  the  engineer  in  charge  called  his  little 
bright-eyed  daughter  to  the  table  in  his  office 
and  told  her  to  explode  the  great  mine.  The 
tiny  finger  sought  the  black  button,  a  gentle 
pressure  and  Manhattan  Island  trembled  at 
the  terrific  shock,  as  the  great  boulders  rose 


26  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

and  lifted  heavenward  a  mountain   of   foam- 
capped  water. 

So  the  tiny  hand  of  a  child,  though  weak  and 
feeble,  uplifted  to  God  in  prayer,  touches  the 
dynamo  of  the  universe  and  may  bring  an  an- 
swer that  shakes  the  earth.  God  help  us  to 
remember  Thy  power  and  our  duty! 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE,  27 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE. 

"Whom  we  proclaim,  admonishing  and  teaching  every 
man  in  all  wisdom." — Col.  i.  28. 

The  so-called  "  sacredness  "  of  the  office  has 
never  and  never  will  oppress  me.  I  am  worth 
just  as  much  as  a  minister  as  I  am  as  a  man, 
and  no  more.  I  weigh  just  as  much  as  my 
heart  and  brain  and  personality  weigh  when 
put  into  the  scales  and  weighed — not  an  ounce 
more,  not  an  ounce  less.  The  letters  REV 
that  men  put  before  my  name  add  nothing  to 
its  weight.  They  mean  nothing;  they  are 
nothing.  If  it  were  possible  to  put  that  title 
into  a  concrete  particle  and  place  it  under  a 
microscope  that  magnified  a  million  diameters, 
the  eye  of  man  could  never  find  it,  if  given 
eternity  in  which  to  look  for  it.  It  seems  to 
me  that  Beecher  is  surely  right  when  he  main- 
tains that  here  manhood  only  counts.  My 
office  is  sacred,  but  sacred  because  my  man- 


28  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

hood  is  sacred.  If  I  am  mean  and  small  and 
stingy  and  vicious,  the  sacredness  of  the  ofifice 
I  hold  in  no  wise  furnishes  a  refuge  for  my 
weaknesses.  If  there  is  a  deacon  or  a  humble 
member  of  this  church  who  has  a  bigger  heart, 
a  bigger  brain  and  a  greater  personality  than 
the  pastor,  then  he  is  a  more  sacred  man  than 
I  am,  and  is  entitled  by  the  divine  right  of  that 
manhood  to  waeld  a  greater  influence  than  I 
can  wield. 

But  let  us  go  simply  to  the  text  for  the  true 
definition  of  the  scope  and  function  of  the 
Christian  minister. 

Whom. — We  have  in  this  first  word,  "  whom," 
outlined  the  scope  of  the  ofifice.  We  see  at 
once  from  the  personal  pronoun  the  very  ob- 
vious fact  that  the  substance  of  the  message  to 
be  delivered  through  the  minister  is  not  a  creed 
or  fine-spun  philosophy,  but  a  person — the  per- 
sonality of  Christ  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour 
of  mankind.  A  life,  then,  we  have,  embodying 
the  divine  revelation ;  and  we  do  not  search 
for  it  in  any  mysterious  system  of  metaphysics, 
but  in  the  depths  of  the  life  thus  revealed. 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  29 

We  are  to  preach,  then,  the  personality  of 
Jesus  Christ — His  life,  His  death,  His  resurrec- 
tion, and  all  that  clusters  around  Him.  Now, 
it  is  precisely  the  purpose  of  the  whole  epistle 
to  the  Colossians  to  set  forth  this  marvellous 
personality  in  its  completeness,  its  fulness,  its 
all-sufificient  power.  The  church  at  Colossae 
had  become  befogged  in  the  fine-spun  theories 
of  would-be  philosophers  in  their  attempts  to 
bridge  the  chasm  between  the  material  and 
the  spiritual.  They  had  peopled  earth  and 
heaven  with  their  mysterious  beings,  semi- 
angelic,  half  spirit,  half  matter.  Paul  now 
comes  and  with  the  hand  of  a  master  brushes 
these  useless  creatures  aside,  and  boldly  sets 
forth  Christ  as  the  connecting  link  between 
matter  and  spirit,  earth  and  heaven;  Christ 
the  way  from  earth  to  heaven ;  Christ  in  the 
light  of  his  divine-human  personality,  filling 
the  universe,  material  and  immaterial;  Christ, 
all  and  in  all,  whether  of  things  on  the  earth, 
above  the  earth,  or  beneath  it.  Such  is  Paul's 
conception.  He  sees  this  wonderful  person- 
ality  encircling  the  world,  touching  the  per- 


30  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

sonality  of  man  at  every  possible  point  of 
contact,  and  reaching  up  until  He  fills  all  heaven 
and  touches  the  personality  of  God  at  every 
possible  point  of  contact.  To  preach  Christ, 
therefore,  is  to  preach  that  which  concerns  all 
things,  human  and  divine. 

We. — Whom  does  Paul  include  in  this  plural 
pronoun  ?  Evidently  those  humble  Christians, 
whoever  they  were,  who  had  carried  the  Gos- 
pel to  Colossas.  He  does  not  arrogate  to  him- 
self any  special  prerogatives  or  privileges  be- 
cause of  his  office,  but  simply  places  himself 
on  the  same  level  with  those  less  distinguished 
followers  of  the  Master  who  had  first  carried 
the  glad  tidings  to  the  Colossians.  Unques- 
tionably, Paul  seems  here  to  have  had  a  clear 
conception  of  the  common  priesthood  of  be- 
lievers, and  does  not  make  any  pretensions  to 
the  office  of  a  papal  legate,  cardinal,  or  bishop. 
He  speaks  with  authority — the  authority  of 
one  who  knows  the  mysteries  of  the  glories  of 
supreme  truth ;  but  does  not  claim  to  have  any 
special  patent  on  that  truth.  If,  when  men 
say  the  ministry  should  not  interfere  in  public 


THE  MmiSTER'S  SPHERE.  3 1 

affairs,  they  mean  a  class  clergy,  an  aristocracy, 
an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  bound  by  common 
oaths  for  the  advancement  of  their  own  ends, 
I,  of  course,  agree  at  once;  but  not  upon  the 
ground  of  the  sacredness  of  their  office,  but 
on  the  ground  that  they  are  a  dangerous  nuis- 
ance to  the  common  weal  of  a  nation  of  free 
men. 

Proclaim. — This  w 0x6.  proclaim  introduces 
us  to  the  first  division  of  the  definition  of  the 
function  of  the  minister.  He  is  to  proclaim, 
to  utter,  to  tell  out  a  message.  Not  mumble 
mysterious  ceremonies,  go  through  idiotic 
services  in  an  unknown  tongue;  not  to  offer 
sacrifices,  masses,  mummeries,  or  give  utter- 
ance to  vague  whisperings  in  dark  corners;  but 
to  openly  proclaim  a  great  message,  before  all 
men  and  under  all  circumstances.  My  heart 
has  always  said  amen  to  Prof.  Phelps's  hearty 
exhortation  to  his  students,  when  he  says: 
"Preach;  let  other  men  govern.  Preach;  let 
other  men  organize.  Preach;  let  other  men 
raise  funds  and  look  after  denominational  af- 
fairs.    Preach ;  let  other  men  hunt  up  heresies 


32  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

and  do  the  theological  quibbling.  Preach ; 
let  other  men  ferret  out  scandals  and  try  cleri- 
cal delinquents.  Preach ;  let  other  men  solve 
the  problems  of  perpetual  motion,  of  which 
church  history  is  full.  Then,  make  a  straight 
path  between  your  study  and  your  pulpit,  on 
which  the  grass  shall  never  grow."  To  pro- 
claim, then,  with  tongue  and  life  this  message, 
is  the  first  function  of  the  true  minister  of 
Christ.  This  is  the  work  of  the  messenger. 
The  boy  who  brings  me  the  telegram  has  no 
right  to  alter,  add  to,  or  subtract  from  it.  So 
with  him  who  utters  the  fundamental  truths  of 
this  message.  These  truths  are  simple,  plain 
and  yet  ample  for  all  needs.  But  is  the  min- 
ister simply  a  telegraph  boy,  and  does  his  duty 
cease  with  the  delivery  of  this  simple  message  ? 
If  so,  Paul  should  have  closed  his  sentence 
with  this  word  "  proclaim."  This  he  does  not 
do,  and  we  take  it  that  in  what  follows  he  will 
further  qualify  and  define  the  duties  of  the 
office,  as  we  find  he  does. 

The  next  words,  "admonishing  and  TEACH- 
ING," open  a  new  field  of  action.     This  work 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  ZZ 

of  admonition  and  teaching  is  one  of  trans- 
cendent importance  and  is  a  vast  expansion  of 
the  work  of  proclamation. 

In  the  first  place,  a  man  who  faithfully  ad- 
monishes must  be  a  man  utterly  fearless  of 
mortal  or  devil ;  one  was  does  not  hesitate  to 
tell  those  about  him  whether  they  are  right  or 
wrong,  and  that  too  in  monosyllabic  English, 
and  without  any  attempt  primarily  to  please 
the  subject  warned.  Says  Paul :  "Am  I  still 
pleasing  men  ?  If  I  were  still  pleasing  men,  I 
would  not  be  the  servant  of  Christ  ?  "  If  there 
is  a  man,  woman  or  child  in  this  church  whom 
I  am  trying  personally  in  my  ministry  to 
please,  I  don't  know  who  it  is.  No  minister 
of  Christ  has  a  right  to  attempt  to  please  any 
man  or  set  of  men.  The  preacher  who  should 
attempt  this  would  be  a  fool  on  general  princi- 
ples, for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  impossible 
to  please  man. 

And    then    the    word  admonish   blends  the 
Old  Testament  conception  of  the  watchman : 
"  I  have  set  watchmen  on  thy  walls,  O  Jerusa- 
lem, and  they  shall  never  hold  their  peace,  day 
3 


34  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

or  night!"  The  watchman  is  one  who  ad- 
monishes. He  is  watching,  warning,  and  giv- 
ing the  proper  signals  to  those  over  whom  he 
is  set  as  guardian ;  he  should  be  sleepless,  vig- 
ilant, with  an  ear  attuned  to  every  sound,  and 
an  eye  whose  keen  vision  sweeps  the  whole 
horizon  from  hour  to  hour.  I  know  a  good 
woman  who  recently  said:  "  I  had  rather  a 
child  of  mine  would  be  a  hod-carrier  than  a 
clergyman!"  The  statement  struck  me  as  an 
interesting  one.  I  was  curious  to  know  what 
her  conception  of  a  clergyman  was.  And  in 
a  subsequent  conversation  with  her,  I  think  I 
caught  her  conception  of  an  ideal  minister. 
She  was  describing  one  whom  she  had  once 
known  and  very  much  admired.  The  closing 
characterization  of  her  sacred  hero  was  that 
"  he  was  such  a  good  man!  "  And  she  tenderly 
and  reverently  accented  the  word  good  with 
lengthened  sweetness  long  drawn  out.  That 
was  her  notion  of  an  ideal  minister.  I  felt  like 
asking  her  in  haste,  "  Has  he  made  his  will  ? 
He  will  die  soon — he  cannot  be  long  for  this 
world !  "     Alas,  he  had  been  dead  some  time. 


THE  MINISTERS  SPHERE.  35 

When  a  minister  has  reached  the  period  that 
such  an  expression  accurately  describes  his 
life  and  work,  it  is  time  for  him  to  go — he  is 
too  good  to  live  here  in  this  rickety  old  world 
of  sin  and  devilment.  For  a  goody-good 
preacher  I  have  always  entertained  only  pity 
and  contempt.  What  a  sublime  calling,  in- 
deed, to  go  up  and  down  in  this  world,  patting 
everybody  on  the  back  with — "  It's  all  right, 
everything's  all  right,  everybody's  all  right, 
you're  all  right — the  devil's  all  right !  "  Yes. 
I  think  I  had  rather  my  boy  would  go  back  to 
the  old  farm  in  North  Carolina  and  grub 
stumps,  maul  rails,  hoe  corn,  and  plough  a 
mule  as  did  his  father  once,  than  be  such  a  man 
— he  would  be  doing  more  for  his  country,  his 
God  and  the  human  race. 

Paul  was  not  a  goody-good  preacher.  He 
generally  raised  a  row  in  the  towns  he  entered. 
They  beat,  they  put  him  in  prison.  The  enraged 
citizens  seized  him  by  the  throat,  dragged  and 
pounded  him  up  before  the  magistrates  with  the 
accusing  exclamation  :  "  These  men  who  have 
turned  the  world  upside  down  have  come  hither 


36  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

also!  "  and  they  demanded  their  immediate  ex- 
pulsion. They  desired  to  kick  him  because  he 
had  turned  things  upside  down.  If  he  had  been 
a  "good "  man  only,  they  would  have  had  no 
objection  to  him,  simply  because  be  would 
have  amounted  to  nothing.  Nor  was  Christ, 
though  He  was  the  impersonation  of  love,  in 
any  sense  of  the  word  a  goody-good  preacher. 
He  came  not  to  bring  peace  but  a  sword;  but, 
the  blade  He  wielded  was  the  surgeon's  knife, 
not  the  cimetar  of  the  Saracen.  When  He 
stood  before  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  He  did 
not  give  them  honeyed  words.  They  were 
made  very  clearly  to  understand  that  they 
were  hypocrites  and  scoundrels.  He  did  not 
once  mince  matters  with  them.  Hear  Him: 
"  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypo- 
crites! for  ye  are  like  unto  whited  sepulchres, 
which  outwardy  appear  beautiful,  but  inwardly 
are  foul  of  dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  un- 
cleanness."  Christ  never  hesitated  to  faith- 
fully admonish,  when  admonition  was  necessary. 
He  did  not  tell  them  certainly  that  they  were 
all  right,  everything  and  everybody  all  right. 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  37 

There  are  many  people  in  this  world  who  ob- 
ject to  this  last  phase  of  the  preacher's  work. 

Here  is  a  man  who  objects  to  being  taught, 
because,  as  he  says,  he  is  an  expert  in  his  own 
business;  and,  therefore,  knows  more  about  it 
than  any  impertinent  parson  in  the  country. 
"  What  do  you  know  about  my  business  ?  "  he 
indignantly  asks,  "  Have  I  not  spent  a  lifetime 
in  it  ?  How  dare  you  interfere  Avith  your  im- 
pudent criticism  ? "  So  says  the  skipper  to 
Paul  when  reminded  of  the  fact  that  he  ought 
not  to  have  loosed  from  Crete.  I  imagine  I 
can  hear  that  captain  say:  "What  do  you 
know  about  navigation,  you  miserable  land 
lubber  ?  "  Now,  the  words  Paul  uttered  were 
in  nowise  impertinent.  He  did  not  say:  "You 
have  no  sense  in  the  management  of  this  boat! 
That  sail  is  not  set  right!"  He  merely  said : 
"  You  ought  not  to  have  started  on  this  jour- 
ney at  such  a  time."  He  did  not  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  technique  of  navigation,  but 
simply  gave  an  opinion  of  its  relation  to  the 
world  without — a  matter  of  which  he  may 
have  been  a  better  judge  than  the  captain,  as 


38  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

subsequent  events  showed  in  fact  that  he  was, 
for  the  result  was  they  were  wrecked  and  he 
had  to  take  charge  of  the  whole  thing. 

Here  is  a  young  Napoleon  on  the  stock  ex- 
change, starting  on  the  road  that  leads  to  Sing 
Sing.  I  warn  him  that  he  is  gambling.  Hear 
his  indignant  reply :  "  Gambling,  indeed!  What 
do  you  know  about  stocks  and  bonds  ?  What 
do  you  know  about  this  great  business  in  which 
I  am  engaged  ?  What  do  you  know,  you 
sacred  fool,  about  commerce  or  the  mechanism 
of  exchange  ? "  I  reply,  not  much,  perhaps. 
I  don't  need  to  know  much  about  the  mechan- 
ism of  exchange  in  order  to  know  the  differ- 
ence between  an  honest  man  and  a  thief  or  a 
gambler!  To  judge  the  technique  of  your 
trade,  I  have  neither  time  nor  inclination,  but  I 
do  have  the  right,  and  I  take  the  time,  to  judge 
of  the  relation  of  your  business  to  the  world 
of  morals,  and  here  I  do  claim  to  be  even  a 
better  judge  than  you,  for  I  at  least  am  dis- 
interested. Men  complain  sometimes  that  the 
preacher  is  too  personal.  That  is  just  what  I 
am  here  for.     I  am  nothing,  if  not  personal. 


THE  MIXISTER'S  SPHERE.  39 

I  always  try  to  level  the  old  musket  so  as  to 
hit  something.  I  never  shoot  blank  cartridges, 
and  if  I  do  not  hit  somebody  every  fire,  it  is 
not  because  I  do  not  try.  Why  should  I  stand 
up  here  and  shoot  at  nothing  from  Sunday  to 
Sunday  ?  No !  I  propose  to  shoot  at  you  in 
every  relation  of  life,  and  you  need  not  try  to 
dodge  amid  the  technicalities  of  your  trades 
and  shake  at  me  your  yard  sticks,  your  ham- 
mers, or  bank  books.  J.  H.  Mills,  while  editor 
of  the  Biblical  Recorder  in  Raleigh,  gave  in  his 
paper  a  severe  criticism  of  an  amateur  musical 
performance,  which  so  enraged  the  director  of 
that  eventful  night's  work  that  he  retorted  to 
the  criticism  in  a  heated  public  card,  and 
wound  up  his  tirade  with  the  taunt,  "  It  was 
better  than  you  could  have  done!  "  To  which 
the  unruffled  editor  replied:  "Granted.  Your 
remark  is  true,  but  irrelevant.  Any  hen  in 
this  country  can  lay  an  egg.  I  cannot  per- 
form that  feat ;  but  I  fearlessly  maintain  that 
I  am  still  a  better  judge  of  eggs  than  every 
hen  in  North  Carolina."  The  answer  was  com- 
plete. 


4°  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

I  do  not  know  the  process  of  preparing  beef 
steak,  but  I  do  know  a  good  piece  of  steak 
when  I  see  it  and  taste  it,  I  do  not  under- 
stand the  process  of  making  flour,  but  I  do 
know  good  bread  when  I  see  it.  I  do  not  un- 
derstand the  process  of  cooking,  but  I  know  a 
good  dinner  when  I  get  to  it.  And  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  inform  my  cook  if  it  is  not  right. 
I  do  not  know  all  the  mysteries  of  banking 
and  currency,  but  I  do  know  the  difference 
between  honesty  and  dishonesty.  Christ  had 
never  read  Adam  Smith,  or  Ricardo,  or  J.  S. 
Mill,  or  even  Aristotle  and  Plato.  He  did 
not  know  necessarily  about  the  mechanism  of 
exchange,  but  he  did  know  enough  to  over- 
turn the  tables  of  the  money  changers  in  the 
temple  and  drive  them  from  its  sacred  pre- 
cincts. 

Here  is  a  politician,  well  fed,  large  in  cir- 
cumference, red  nose,  and  luminous  eyes,  and 
loud  breath.  He  has  credentials  of  scores  of 
delegates  to  a  convention  in  his  unhallowed 
pocket  and  obtained  them  by  fraud.  He 
manipulates  things  to  suit  himself,  panders  in 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  4 1 

his  platform  utterances  to  the  lowest  and  vilest 
element  of  our  life,  and  coolly  demands  that  I 
vote  for  his  man  and  his  principles,  and 
threatens  to  forever  cast  out  of  the  synagogue 
all  heretics  who  refuse  to  obey  his  supreme 
will.  I  say  to  him,  you  are  a  villain,  sir!  He 
replies  with  lofty  scorn  for  my  inexperience 
and  ignorance.  "  What  do  you  know  about 
politics  ?  What  do  you  know  about  caucuses 
and  conventions  ?  What  do  you  know  about 
the  machinery  by  which  this  great  govern- 
ment is  run  ?  "  Well,  I  don't  know  a  great  deal 
about  caucuses,  primaries,  conventions  and 
legislative  bodies,  but  I  do  know  a  thief  and  a 
cut-throat  when  I  see  him.  And  I  have  the 
right  to  stand  before  him  and  his  misdeeds. 

Then  there  is  a  large  class  who  delight  to 
hear  abstract  truth  uttered,  but  who  shy  at  a 
personal  application  ;  and  one  of  their  pet  cant 
phrases  is  "  I  want  to  hear  the  GOSPEL."  That 
is,  they  want  to  hear  a  theoretical  Christianity 
preached,  and  make  the  application  to  some 
other  fellow  at  their  leisure.  They  swallow  as 
a  sweet  beverage  the  abstract,  but  fight  like  a 


42  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

child  over  medicine  at  the  concrete.  They 
shut  their  teeth  and  refuse  to  take  it,  and  the 
first  opportunity  shout,  "  I  want  you  to  preach 
Christ!"  They  want  the  fundamentals  pro- 
claimed, but  not  applied.  They  will  weep 
with  you  while  you  tell  them  of  the  one  little 
ewe  lamb,  but  when  you  say,  "  David,  thou 
art  the  man !  "  they  are  sad.  They  wrap  the 
drapery  of  a  freezing  dignity  about  them  and 
retire,  and  send  you  word  indirectly  through 
a  friend  that  they  want  to  hear  the  "  Gospel 
preached." 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  gospel  is  the 
multiplication  table  of  the  science  of  religion. 
Here  is  our  professor  in  mathematics.  The 
class  reaches  this  table.  The  professor  says : 
"  Well,  gentlemen,  we  have  reached  the  multi- 
plication table  this  morning — it  is  a  marvellous 
table,  it  is  the  key  to  the  whole  kingdom  of 
mathematics.  It  never  changes — it  is  always 
true.  It  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever.  Each  given  proposition  is  the  imper- 
sonation of  an  eternal  truth.  So  marvellously 
true  is  this  table  that  I  have  decided  that  we 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  43 

will  repeat  it  forever.  We  will  not  try  to  go 
beyond  this — we  will  simply  repeat  it  forever." 
Of  course  that  professor  would  lose  his  po- 
sition, and  so  do  a  good  many  preachers,  for 
about  the  same  reason,  I  fear.  As  we  press 
the  multiplication  table  into  the  realm  of  alge- 
bra, geometry,  trigonometry,  calculus,  and  ap- 
plied mathematics,  so  is  the  gospel  of  Christ 
to  be  pressed  into  every  phase  of  human  life, 
and  its  eternal  standards  of  truth  and  right 
applied  to  all  developments  of  human  thought 
and  conduct.  I  know  an  old  deacon  of  a  Bap- 
tist church  who  seriously  objects  to  applied 
mathematics  in  the  pulpit.  He  is  worth  about 
$30,000,  and  gives  fifty  cents  a  year  to  his 
church,  and  loans  his  pastor  money  at  eight 
per  cent  interest.  If  his  pastor  preaches  a 
sermon  on  giving,  it  lands  the  old  man  in  the 
middle  of  a  spell  of  sickness.  He  can  squeeze 
a  dollar  so  tight  till  it  feels  like  a  dime.  He 
never  tires  hearing  you  tell  how  ten  times  ten 
make  a  hundred — that  is  glorious,  sweet  to 
him.  But  when  you  say  ten  dimes  make  a 
dollar,  and  a  dollar  is  your  share  of  the  bur- 


44  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

den,  my  brother,  you  hurt  his  feelings.  His 
countenance  falls  ten  degrees  below  zero,  and 
the  sorrow  of  his  countenance  makes  you  wish 
you  had  not  said  anything.  He  is  hurt.  He 
turns  in  his  mind  to  the  choir  and  asks  them 
to  please  sing,  and  there  is  just  one  song  to 
which  his  wounded  spirit  turns,  and  that  is, 
"I'm  glad  salvation's  free!"  He  wants  the 
whole  chorus  to  come  in  on  that  word  free; 
He  wants  to  hear  the  bass,  tenor,  soprano,  and 
alto  just  there,  together  with  all  the  wind  and 
stringed  instruments.  Just  there  he  wants  the 
cymbals,  drum,  and  bass  viols  to  come  in,  and 
the  trombone  man  to  let  out  his  horn  full 
length ! 

I  know  another  member  of  the  church,  who 
is  always  sighing  and  crying  for  the  "  pure 
gospel."  He  drinks.  He  keeps  a  demijohn 
at  home  under  the  bed  all  the  time,  and  takes 
it  when  he  feels  like  it.  Let  his  pastor  preach 
on  temperance,  and  you  will  hear  from  him ! 
You  will  hear  his  voice  crying  in  the  land  for 
the  "  pure  gospel."  That  is,  he  wants  to  sit 
up  in  the  amen  corner,  fold  his  arms  and  watch 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  45 

his  pastor  make  the  fur  fly;  but  he  does  not 
want  to  furnish  any  of  the  fur.  He  wants  to 
see  it  fly  off  common  sinners,  while  his  own 
grows  long  and  silken  and  fine  as  he  feeds  on 
the  "pure  gospel." 

I,  of  course,  agree  that  the  gospel  is  the 
thing  to  preach,  but  we  are  to  remember  that 
this  gospel  encircles  the  material  universe, 
touching  man  at  every  possible  point  of  con- 
tact, and  fills  all  heaven  with  its  glories.  As 
a  minister  of  this  glorious  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  it  is  my  right  and  duty  to  take  my  sur- 
veyor's compass  and  chain  out  into  the  fields 
of  the  world's  activities,  survey  by  the  unerr- 
ing magnet  the  pathway  man  marks  out  for 
himself,  and  tell  him  whether  it  is  straight  or 
crooked,  whether  it  is  narrow  and  mean,  or 
whether  it  is  broad  and  generous.  It  is  my 
work  to  drop  the  plumb  line  of  God's  truth 
down  over  the  foundations  of  your  character, 
and  by  my  applied  sacred  mathematics  to  tell 
you  whether  it  is  square  or  crooked.  By  far 
the  most  important  function  of  my  work  is 
this  application  of  fundamental  gospel  truth 


46  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

to  your  every-day  life  and  character.  I  have 
no  right  to  preach  anything  with  which  the 
gospel  is  not  concerned.  In  what  is  the  gos- 
pel concerned  ?  Anything  and  everything 
that  is  either  right  or  wrong.  Then,  is  there 
a  single  thought  or  deed  possible  to  man  with 
which  this  gospel  has  nothing  to  do  ?  I  have 
yet  to  hear  of  the  principle,  deed,  or  thought 
to  which  this  gospel  cannot  apply.  Surely, 
then,  we  are  not  to  be  goody-goodies.  What  is 
Paul's  form  of  congratulation  as  he  closes  his 
life  work  ?  Docs  he  say:  "  Thank  God,  I  have 
never  made  an  enemy;  I  have  always  been 
modest  and  gentle  and  kept  within  my 
sphere?"  No!  But  hear  the  language  of  the 
veteran  soldier :  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight !  " 
So  is  it  my  duty  to  fight  a  good  fight,  and  not 
to  sugar-coat  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil ! 

Such  a  work,  therefore,  as  is  here  out- 
lined is  also  necessarily  preventive  in  its  char- 
acter, for  the  watchman  who  warns  is  one 
who  gives  the  danger  signal  at  its  first  ap- 
proach.    I  bought  a  copy  of  an  evening  paper 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  47 

the   other  day,  as   I  returned  home,  and  the 
first  thing  upon  which  my  eye  fell  was  a  dis- 
patch from  Providence  saying  that  a  drunken 
brute  had   gone  home  and  demanded   of  his 
wife  two  dollars  of  her  hard  earnings,  that  he 
might  return  to  the  grog-shop  and  complete 
his   drunk.     This  she   refused,  and  thereupon, 
with  the  ferocity  of  a  beast,  he  fell  upon  her 
and  beat  her  to  death ;    and,  as  she  lay  dying, 
she  turned  to  her  child  and  said:    "  My  boy, 
run    for    Father    Finnigan,    quick!"       Father 
Finnigan    hastened    to    come ;    but    she    died 
before  he  reached  the  house,  to  go  through  his 
ceremonies  over  her  dead  body.     Now,  there 
are   those   who   think   that    Father   Finnigan's 
duty  began   and    ended    with    his    ceremonies 
over  that  body,  but,  as  for  me,  I  demand  a  re- 
ligion that  begins  its  work  before  the  autopsy, 
or  not    at    all.       If   I    cannot   come  into   the 
house  before  the   undertaker,  then   I  will   not 
come  at  all;   I  will  quit  the  business. 

I  look  around  me  aiid  see  the  devil  mount 
the  driver's  box  of  our  national  life.  I  see 
him  draw  the  reins  over  the  arched  necks  of 


48  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  political  steeds  harnessed  to  the  national 
chariot.  Each  horse  acknowledges  the  grip 
of  the  master.  He  lifts  high  those  reins  and 
brings  down  his  lash  on  the  bare  backs  of  his 
high-tempered  brutes.  Forward  they  dash, 
obedient  to  his  command.  Madly  onward 
they  plunge,  as  the  lash  descends  again  and 
again.  On,  on  they  leap  over  throngs  of  help- 
less men,  women  and  children.  Their  bodies 
are  ground  beneath  the  wheels  and  iron  hoofs. 
Hear  their  sighs,  groans,  and  shrieks  as  their 
blood  in  dark  pools  stains  the  pavements! 
Dismayed  at  the  horrible  sight,  I  cry  aloud : 
"  My  God,  cannot  something  be  done  ? " 
About  that  time,  I  hear  the  squeaking  voice 
of  some  little  preacher  as  he  hastens  to  say: 
"  No,  you  can't  do  anything!  Nothing  can  be 
done!  You  must  stand  out  of  the  way,  or 
you  will  get  run  over  yourself.  Besides,  man, 
it  would  be  out  of  place  for  you  to  attempt  to 
do  anything.  You  are  specially  set  apart! 
Think  of  that!  Just  think  of  the  cut  of  your 
coat !  Think  of  the  style  of  your  collar  !  "  In 
reply,  I  feel  like  crying:  "Silence!     You  keep 


THE  MINISTER'S  SPHERE.  49 

me  from  my  thoughts.  If  that  is  all  you  have 
to  say,  let  Nature's  stillness  be  the  only  re- 
quiem of  the  dead  that  lie  around  us,  I  never 
wear  a  collar  that  chokes  me.  When  my  collar 
gets  so  high  and  stiff  as  to  form  an  impassable 
barrier  between  me  and  the  cause  of  humanity 
and  God,  then  I  will  cut  my  collar  down ;  and 
if  it  can't  be  cut  down,  I  must  take  it  off — 
I  will  not  wear  a  collar — I  will  go  out  of  the 
business." 

A  hard  work  it  is  often  to  wound  that  you 
may  heal,  to  slay  that  life  may  be  given ;  but 
it  is  the  crowning  glory  of  a  life  to  be  called 
of  God  to  such  a  work. 

4 


5°  LIVING  PROBLEMS, 


MAN  vs.   FATE. 

So  then  each  one  of  us  shall  give  an  account  of  himself  unto 
God. — Rom.  xiv.  12. 

Christianity  is  yet  burdened  with  the  leg- 
acy of  pagan  theology.  The  astrology  of  the 
Chaldeans  is  still  a  potent  force  in  too  many 
lives.  The  Greek  and  Roman  Fates  wove 
their  accursed  threads  not  only  into  the  web  of 
ancient  life,  but  through  literature,  philosophy, 
and  religion,  those  three  old  hags  are  still 
spinning,  weaving,  and  cutting  the  tangled 
threads  of  human  destiny.  Christ  came  and 
found  the  world  trembling  lest  they  frown. 
We  are  not  yet  freed  from  their  despotism, 
though  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  we  have  the 
dignity  and  glory  of  the  individual  soul  fully 
revealed. 

I  once  heard  such  a  fatalistic  sermon  by  a 
Christian  minister.  He  magnified  the  sover- 
eignty of  God  until  the  part  that  man  played 


MAN-  VS.  FATE.  51 

in  salvation  was  less  than  nothing,  that  is,  it 
was  antagonistic  rather  than  cooperative.  He 
justified  his  position  by  assuming  that  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  some  such  scene 
as  this  occurred: — Let  us  imagine  the  council 
chamber  of  eternity  to  be  M.  Pasteur's  office 
in  Paris.  The  anteroom  you  find  full  of  the 
victims  of  hydrophobia — they  come  from  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe— the  peasant,  bitten 
by  the  mad  wolf  in  the  wilds  of  Siberia,  ladies 
from  London  snapped  by  their  pets,  victims  of 
the  vagrant  cur  sulking  along  street  and  high- 
way, children  from  free  America— men,  women, 
children,  huddled  together,  all  fleeing  from  the 
same  hideous  nightmare,  all  starting  in  their 
beds  at  night  choking  and  smothering  with  the 
same  horrible  thought!  Pasteur  enters,  sur- 
veys the  scene,  and  says,  "  I  believe  I  will  save 
only  five  of  you.  The  rest  can  go,  I  might 
treat  you  if  I  would,  but  I  choose  not  to  do  so. 
I  will  save  these  five  for  no  special  reason,  ex- 
cept my  own  good  pleasure,  the  rest  of  you 
need  not  say  a  word.  My  decree  is  fixed.  I 
never  change.    You  need  not  ask  me  to  save 


5^  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

you."  And  with  slow  step  and  backward-glanc- 
ing eyes,  with  breaking  and  broken  hearts,  the 
sad  procession  files  out — they  are  lost  amid 
the  turmoil  of  the  world,  sighing,  groaning, 
raving,  dying  without  hope !  What  a  travesty 
on  the  name  of  God!  Upon  His  love,  justice, 
mercy — upon  every  attribute  of  divine  nature! 
Perish  the  thought !  I  know  not,  nor  want  to 
know,  such  a  God !  No  such  God  lives  in  the 
Bible.  Plainly  and  clearly  are  we  taught  hu- 
man responsibility — so  plainly  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  escaping  it.  For  salvation  is 
proclaimed  universal  and  conditional.  "  Come 
unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."  "  God  so  loved  tJie 
tvorld,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  should  not  perish." 
"  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  worketh  righteousness  is  ac- 
cepted of  him."  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins  and  not  for  our  sins  only  but  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world."  "Ask,  and  ye  shall 
receive,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened."  "W/w- 
soever  will,  let  him  take  of  the  water  of  life 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  53 

freely."  The  invitation  is  world  wide.  Salva- 
tion is  offered  as  a  free  gift.  But  it  must  be 
accepted  to  be  efficacious.  It  will  not  be 
forced  on  any  one.  Compliance  with  this 
condition  lies  solely  within  the  power  of  the 
human  will. 

The  agnostic  argument  will  not  avail  to  re- 
lieve us  of  this  responsibility.  No  man  in  a 
Christian  land  can  say :  "  I  do  not  know  whether 
there  is  a  God,  or  a  Heaven  or  a  Hell.  I  have 
no  such  knowledge  and  am  therefore  excused 
from  any  responsibility  in  the  matter."  Such 
ignorance  does  not  excuse,  because  the  means 
of  positive  knowledge  is  within  grasp.  For  in 
John  vii.  17,  we  find,  "  If  any  man  willeth  to  do 
his  will,  he  shall  KNOW  of  the  teaching  whether 
it  be  of  God."  Here  is  the  simple  experi- 
mental test.  Any  man  who  wants  to  know, 
can  know  by  making  a  practical  test  of  religion, 
of  Christ.  God  has  thus  pledged  himself  to 
give  light  to  every  soul  that  submits  to  His  will 
and  asks  for  light.  I  have  never  seen  it  fail. 
If  it  ever  does  fail,  then  the  New  Testament  is 
a  failure.     I  met  a  man  in  an  after  meeting 


54  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

one  night  who  had  not  accepted  the  invitation 
to  confess  faith  in  Christ.  I  asked  him  why, 
and  when  pressed  he  replied,  "Well,  the  truth 
is,  I  don't  know  whether  there  is  any  God.  I 
have  my  doubts."  I  asked  if  he  was  willing  to 
receive  the  light  if  God  would  give  it.  He  said 
he  was.  I  told  him  to  take  his  Bible  when  he 
went  home,  read  the  Third  Chapter  of  John, 
kneel  and  pray  this  simple  prayer,  "  Lord,  my 
will  is  thine,  reveal  thyself  unto  me,  show  me 
the  truth,  give  me  light  ! "  He  refused  at 
first,  but  finally  promised.  That  night  he  did 
as  he  promised,  and  the  next  evening  he  was 
the  first  man  to  leap  to  his  feet  to  testify  to 
his  faith  in  Christ.  I  baptized  him  a  few  weeks 
later  and  he  is  now  an  earnest,  consistent 
Christian.  If  you  do  not  knotv,  it  is  simply 
because  you  do  not  zvant  to  know  ! 

Is  it  not  true,  then,  as  our  text  implies,  that 
in  the  last  analysis  every  man  is  alone  person- 
ally responsible  for  his  life  and  his  character, 
the  crystallization  of  life  ? 

Could  we  make  any  other  power  responsi- 
ble ? 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  55 

There  are  only  three  forces  that  operate  on 
human  life  and  character — the  human  will,  or 
the  creating  and  governing  power  within  man, 
the  force  of  circumstances  or  environment,  and 
supernatural  power,  or  God  the  Creator  of  all. 
If  we  could  therefore  shift  responsibility  upon 
environment  or  upon  God,  we  easily  escape. 
Let  us  see  if  it  can  be  done. 

I.  Man  is  the  creature  of  circumstances, 
does  he  not  then  cease  to  be  a  free  agent? 
Hardly.  For  we  must  remember  that  truth 
is  a  bird  with  two  wings.  Clip  either,  and  the 
bird  comes  down.  It  may  be  true  that  man  is 
the  creature  of  circumstances,  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  he  is  the  master  of  circumstances. 

I  would  not  underestimate  the  part  played 
by  circumstance  or  environment  in  human  life. 
This  part  is  a  most  important  one.  The  char- 
acter of  animals  is  largely  determined  by  their 
habitat.  The  polar  bear  gives  witness  to  the 
fact  that  the  realm  of  everlasting  snow  has  set 
its  seal  upon  his  hide  and  become  a  part  of  his 
very  being.  The  Bengal  tiger  borrows  his 
stripes  from  the  variegated  jungle  in  which  he 


56  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

prowls.  Climate,  we  know,  has  ever  made  its 
imprint  on  character,  whether  in  animals  or 
men.  The  philosopher  understands  this  princi- 
ple when  he  devotes  himself  to  the  study  of 
Sociology,  or  the  environment  of  man.  So  the 
Christian  understands  its  value,  when  he  comes 
out  from  among  wicked  companions  and  in- 
fluences and  unites  himself  with  those  who  love 
God  and  truth  and  righteousness. 

Yet  this  principle  is  after  all  a  secondary 
one  when  applied  to  man.  Man  is  distin- 
guished from  the  mere  animal  by  being  re- 
sponsible for  the  results  of  his  habitat,  or 
environment,  on  character;  because  he  has 
the  power  to  choose  his  own  surroundings,  to 
change  his  environment  as  often  as  he  sees 
fit.  If  he  does  not  change  from  that  which 
is  evil,  when  he  has  the  power,  he  becomes 
solely  responsible  for  the  evil  results  that 
follow. 

Besides,  man  has  shown  in  the  past  that  he 
can  master  circumstances  if  he  will ;  that  he 
can  transform,  make,  and  unmake  his  surround- 
ings.    To  believe  a  thing  impossible  is  to  make 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  57 

it  impossible,  but  when  man  chooses  to  elimi- 
nate the  word  "  impossible  "  from  his  dictionary, 
he  begins  to  work  miracles.  I  remember  the 
first  time  that  I  ever  went  through  the  moun- 
tains of  North  Carolina,  the  nearer  I  ap- 
proached the  higher  and  more  impassable  the 
Blue  Ridge  seemed  to  loom  up  before  me, 
until  at  last  the  great  dark  cliff  seemed  to 
stand  directly  in  the  pathway  and  say,  "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  come,  and  no  farther  !  "  But 
pressing  on  and  on,  I  found  the  turnpike 
gracefully  wound  around  the  cliff  and  passed 
out  upon  the  other  side.  So  do  men  make 
possible  the  impossible  in  everyday  life,  by 
simply  saying,  "  I  will  ! "  and  at  the  utter- 
ance of  these  words  mountains  become  mole 
hills. 

Men  say  they  can't,  when  they  can,  if  they 
will.  In  the  war  with  Mexico  a  company  of 
Texans  were  captured,  and  marched  at  double 
quick  speed  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  at  the 
dawn  of  the  second  day  they  were  nearly  dead 
from  fatigue  and  exhaustion,  and  could  go  no 
further,  but  when  the  order  was  issued  to  shoot 


5 8  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

all  who  dropped  by  the  wayside,  they  started 
off  at  a  lively  gait  and  kept  it  up  all  day. 

Alexander  H.  Stephens  was  a  little  paralytic 
— a  life-long  invalid.  How  could  such  a  man 
achieve  success  in  the  rough  ?nd  tumble  arena 
of  American  politics  ?  Yet  he  did.  That  big 
invalid's  chair  was  a  part  of  the  Nation's 
furniture  at  Washington  for  a  generation. 
Weak  and  feeble  in  body,  racked  with  many 
an  ache  and  pain,  yet  to  the  day  of  his  death 
the  crook  of  his  finger  was  power.  Men  knew 
that  back  of  the  pale  face,  shrivelled  hand,  and 
dwarfed  body  that  lay  so  lightly  in  that  chair, 
there  was  caged  the  spirit  of  a  lion,  and  all 
who  knew  him,  loved,  feared,  or  respected 
him.     He  mastered  circumstances. 

When  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison  started  his  cru- 
sade against  slavery,  circumstances  were  all 
against  him  and  his  cause.  He  was  hooted 
and  hissed  in  Boston.  His  very  life  was 
threatened.  Yet  he  simply  said,  "  Here  I  take 
my  stand.  I  will  not  extenuate.  I  will  not 
excuse.  I  will  not  retreat  one  single  inch — and 
I  will  be  heard  !  "     And  he  was  heard !    In  the 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  59 

thunder  of  artillery  that  shook  the  world,  he 
was  heard  !  Amid  the  carnage  of  those  four 
years  of  blood  and  death,  he  was  heard  !  In 
the  shout  of  four  millions  of  slaves  made  free- 
men in  a  day  he  was  heard  !  He  made  cir- 
cumstances—made and  unmade  the  men  and 
measures  of  generations. 

His  physicians  told  Douglas  Jerrold  that  he 
was  dying.  The  old  man  started  at  the  an- 
nouncement, lifted  himself  on  his  elbow,  and 
exclaimed,  "  What,  man,  die  and  leave  these 
little  ones  helpless!  I  cannot.  I  will  not 
die!"  He  lived  three  years  longer.  His  in- 
domitable will  had  grasped  Death  by  the 
throat  and  hold  him  at  arm's  length  three 
years.  Upon  the  other  hand  we  see  the  con- 
trast in  the  man  who  did  not  bring  his  will  to 
bear  on  circumstances,  in  a  soldier  who  was  sen- 
tenced to  be  shot.  He  was  placed  beside  the 
open  grave  with  the  guard  drawn  up  in  front. 
The  order  was  countermanded  at  the  last  mo- 
ment, and  blank  cartridges  substituted  for  the 
balls  The  guard  fired,  and  to  the  surprise  of 
all  the  man  dropped  dead.     Not  a  paper  wad 


6o  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

even  had  touched  him,  but  he  died — because  he 
thought  he  was  dead.  He  had  loosed  his  grip 
on  his  will  power. 

We  can  all  remember  times  in  our  own  lives 
when  we  stood  face  to  face  with  some  crisis, 
and  realized  with  startling  vividness  our  indi- 
vidual responsibility — realized  it  by  an  intuition 
swift  and  unerring,  and  that  always  stood  con- 
firmed by  the  sternest  logic.  I  shall  never  for- 
get such  a  time  in  my  own  life.  It  was  in  my 
early  college  days.  I  had  begun  to  pin  my 
faith  to  fate.  I  had  my  star.  My  heart  was 
set  on  several  prizes.  Instead  of  hard  work, 
I  mused  and  dreamed  and  consulted  the  Sybil- 
line  books.  All  was  propitious.  Success  was 
sure.  I  saw  the  new  moon  a  hand's  breadth 
above  the  eastern  horizon  unobscured  by  leaf 
or  twig.  The  zephyrs  whispered  to  the  leaves 
and  told  of  success — the  stars  all  proclaimed 
it.  Shall  I  ever  forget  that  night  in  June,  when 
with  fallen  crest,  I  walked  out  of  the  brilliantly 
lighted  hall,  with  that  awful  decision  of  the 
judges  ringing  in  my  ears!  I  found  that  the 
stars  had  been  talking  about  another  man,  and 


Man  vs.  fate.  6i 

the  zephyrs  had  whispered  about  another  fel- 
low entirely,  and  the  moon  had  proven  false  to 
all  her  vows !  I  lay  down  on  the  grass  beneath 
the  kindly  shadow  of  a  spreading  oak,  and 
cooled  of?  for  an  hour.  That  night  all  the 
idiocy  of  fate  and  fatalism,  signs  and  wonders, 
oozed  out  of  my  body  and  passed  of?  harm- 
lessly into  the  earth.  I  had  an  interview  with 
myself,  took  stock,  and  wound  up  with  the 
resolution  to  work  seventeen  hours  a  day  next 
year.  I  did,  and  was  never  afterward  troubled 
with  the  moon,  or  the  stars,  or  the  zephyrs. 

Even  where  man  cannot  change  his  environ- 
ment, and  when  it  is  fixed,  dark  and  cruel,  he 
is  yet  master  of  the  situation.  He  is  endowed 
with  a  faculty  by  which  he  can  transform  dark- 
ness into  light,  and  can  make  even  the  terror 
of  his  surroundings  tributary  to  the  glory  of 
his  character.  The  most  wonderful  bird  in  the 
Antilles  is  a  little  humming  bird.  He  revels  in 
those  gleaming  solitudes  of  tropical  nature, 
where  danger  lurks  on  every  side,  among  the 
most  venomous  insects,  and  among  the  most 
mournful  plants  whose  very  shade  kills.     He 


02  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

darts  amid  the  foliage  of  the  deadly  manchi- 
neal  tree  and  builds  his  nest  among  its  poison- 
ous boughs.  He  boldly  crops  and  eats  the 
fruits  of  this  fearful  tree,  thrusts  his  long  beak 
down  into  the  depths  of  this  venomous  flower 
and  draws  forth  the  pigments  with  which  he 
paints  his  crest  the  rich  vermilion,  and  the 
sinister  green  with  which  he  gives  the  metallic 
lustre  to  his  triumphant  wings,  and  from  their 
burning  poison  acids  derives  his  shrill  cry  and 
the  everlasting  agitation  of  his  angry  moments. 
What  this  bird  does  with  poison,  man  has  been 
able  to  do  with  poverty,  jails,  cruelty,  persecu- 
tion, and  torture.  As  this  bird  transmutes 
poison  into  life  and  beauty,  so  man  has  taken 
the  direst  elements  of  life,  and  made  character 
glorious  therewith.  Milton's  blindness  revealed 
to  the  world  a  Paradise  Lost.  A  Bedford  jail 
gave  us  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress ! 

Circumstances,  then,  have  not  mastered  men 
when  the  human  will  has  asserted  its  power. 

II.  God  made  man.  Is  not  God  then  re- 
sponsible for  man's  worthlessness  ?  Hardly. 
God  did  make  man,  but  man  makes  himself 


MAN   VS.  FATE.  63 

also.  Character  is  all  there  is  to  man  that  is 
worth  possessing,  and  God  does  not  make 
man's  character  by  any  direct  creative  act. 
Character  is  the  product  of  the  human  will. 
Will  power  God  gave  to  man,  and  this  is  the 
instrument  with  which  man  makes  himself. 

It  is  useless  and  senseless  to  whine  about  the 
existence  of  evil.  God  does  not  permit  evil.  He 
cannot  help  it.  Having  endowed  man  with  a 
free  will,  or  the  power  of  choice — there  could 
be  no  alternative — evil  was  a  necessity  of  this 
the  highest  possible  creation  from  the  divine 
hand.  To  have  removed  the  possibility  of  evil 
would  have  been  to  destroy  the  power  of 
choice,  and  hence,  to  have  destroyed  man. 
That  is,  he  would  have  been  simply  a  brute,  or 
an  automaton — not  a  man.  Evil  is,  therefore, 
a  necessary  incident  to  the  creation  of  man ; 
and  to  charge  God  with  the  existence  of  evil  is 
to  charge  him  with  the  crime  of  creating  man. 
Shadow  is  an  incident  of  sunlight.  We  do  not 
charge  the  sun  with  the  responsibility  of  the 
shadow.  Neither  do  we  charge  the  existence 
of  evil  as  a  crime  against  the  Godhead.     This 


64  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

world  would  not  be  better,  but  infinitely  worse 
without  evil,  since  to  remove  evil  would  be  to 
remove  the  possibility  of  good. 

Good  is  the  result  of  choice.  A  moral  agent 
must  be  free.  The  very  word  tnoral  carries  with 
it  the  absolute  necessity  of  freedom.  This  free- 
dom is  found  in  the  power  of  choice.  Will  is 
the  power  of  choice.  Every  will,  therefore,  is  a 
perfect  will.  Choice  is  absolute.  We  either 
choose,  or  do  not  choose.  He,  who  has  not 
the  power  of  choice,  is  not  a  man — he  is  de- 
prived of  the  essential  function  of  manhood,  or 
moral  agency.  The  words  "  strong "  and 
"weak,"  therefore,  cannot  be  correctly  applied 
to  will  in  its  essence. 

But  could  not  God  have  made  man  so  that 
he  could  not  sin?  Yes,  God  did  make  many 
animals  incapable  of  sin,  but  we  call  them 
monkeys,  horses,  cows,  and  such  like,  not 
men.  But  could  not  God  have  so  con- 
structed man  that  sin  would  have  been  im- 
possible ?  Yes,  but  he  would  have  thus  made 
good  equally  impossible.  He  might  have 
prevented  slander  by  creating  man  without  a 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  65 

tongue,  but  such  a  man  could  not  have  sun"- 
songs  in  praise  of  his  Creator.  You  can  pre- 
vent a  frolicsome  boy  from  mischief  by  tying 
him  hand  and  foot,  but  you  cannot  send  him 
on  an  errand  of  mercy  while  thus  tied — he  is 
equally  incapable  of  good. 

The  power,  then,  freely  to  do,  or  not  to 
do  that  which  is  right,  is  essential  to  the 
existence  of  moral  quality  in  any  action.  For 
God  to  have  removed  the  possibility  of  evil 
would  have  been  to  destroy  the  power  of 
choice,  which  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
free  moral  agency,  or  manhood.  Let  me 
repeat  and  emphasize  this  point.  There  can 
be  no  such  thing  as  moral  quality  asserted 
of  an  action  unless  the  power  of  choice  was 
exercised  by  the  agent. 

To  illustrate  this :  Some  years  ago  a  heavy 
passenger  train  was  slowly  puffing  its  way  up 
the  steeps  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  great  engine 
panted  as  if  its  strength  were  failing.  The  track 
was  little  more  than  a  shelf  cut  in  the  rocks, 
wath  a  cliff  upon  one  side,  and  the  precipice 
below.  The  scene  was  one  of  wondrous 
5 


66  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

beauty,  and  while  the  passengers  were  enrapt 
with  the  sublime  views  that  ever  and  anon- 
burst  upon  them,  suddenly  the  whistle  of  the 
engine  uttered  its  sharp  cry  for  down  brakes. 
The  brakesmen  sprang  to  their  posts  and  ap- 
plied all  their  strength  to  obey  the  call.  What 
had  happened,  or  was  about  to  happen,  no 
one  knew.  With  nervous  questioning,  people 
thrust  their  heads  out  the  windows,  or  rushed 
to  the  platforms.  The  sharp  eye  of  the  en- 
gineer had  seen  an  av/ful  peril — a  train  of  mov- 
ing freight  cars  descending  the  mountain  side 
upon  his  track  !  For  a  moment  it  was  in  plain 
sight  dashing  around  a  curve — no  engine,  no 
brakesmen,  no  sign  of  life.  A  collision  seemed 
inevitable.  The  loss  of  life  would  be  simply 
horrible  !  What  should  he  do  ?  He  thought 
of  a  hundred  things  all  in  a  moment,  but  none 
seemed  practicable  save  one,  and  that  he  in- 
stantly decided  to  try.  "  Down  brakes  "  he 
whistled.  "  Free  the  engine  from  the  train  !  " 
he  shouted  to  the  fireman.  In  a  moment  it 
was  done.  "  Now  jump  for  your  life  !  "  The 
fireman  leaped  and  scrambled  to  his  feet  again. 


MAiV    VS.  FATE.  67 

"  Now  fight  the  battle  for  us !  "  exclaimed  the 
engineer  as  he  opened  the  throttle  valve  and 
sprang  from  the  steps.  Freed  from  its  load, 
the  iron  monster  darted  up  the  mountain  side 
alone  to  meet  the  coming  foe  !  A  long  gray 
streak  of  smoke  marked  the  way  as  with  the 
speed  of  the  wind  it  dashed  around  curve  and 
cliff  and  on  to  the  mortal  combat !  Meanwhile 
down  the  track  in  full  sight  came  the  wild  cars 
at  a  speed  so  fearful  that,  as  they  rounded  the 
curves  the  wheels  rose  from  the  track  and  came 
down  with  a  resounding  crash.  Then  with  a 
mighty  tiger-like  rage,  they  flew  at  each  other  ! 
The  crash  shook  the  hills !  A  roaring  cloud 
of  steam  burst  into  the  air,  and  then  the  shat- 
tered cars,  a  grinding,  crackling  mass,  rose 
higher,  higher,  higher  until  it  quivered  and 
tottered  for  a  moment  at  its  base,  reeled  and 
went  thundering  down  the  embankment  in  the 
ravine  below.  The  grateful  passengers  draw 
near.  There  were  the  splintered  ties,  the 
deep  ugly  furrows  in  the  road-bed,  the  broken 
rails  and  the  nameless  fragments  of  an  utter 
wreck.     The   gallant   engine   was   a  hopeless 


68  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

ruin.  There  it  lay  like  some  noble  wounded 
animal,  with  its  iron  ribs  broken  and  crushed, 
its  brass  lungs  burst,  and  its  great  heart  torn 
out !  It  had  fought  a  battle  in  which  hundreds 
of  lives  and  untold  interests  were  at  stake,  and 
had  won.  It  had  died  that  men  might  live  ! 
And  yet,  that  grateful  throng  never  even  in- 
quired the  name  of  the  engine.  They  reared 
no  monument  to  its  memory  there.  And  why  ? 
Because  the  engine  had  no  power  of  choice. 
It  was  compelled  to  do  what  it  did,  hence  no 
moral  quality  could  be  attributed  to  the  deed, 
though  similar  in  character  to  the  supreme 
tragedy  on  Calvary  itself !  But  with  tears  of 
joy  and  gratitude  they  blessed  the  engineer' 
whose  quick  wit,  daring  plan,  and  instant  exe- 
cution had  saved  them  from  death.  He  was 
the  hero  of  the  hour — because  he  had  the  power 
to  do,  or  not  to  do,  what  he  did.  We  cannot, 
then,  make  God  responsible  for  our  sins  or 
worthlessness. 

The  conclusion  is  overwhelming  that  upon 
every  man's  head  rests  his  own  blood.  Men 
who  profess  a  belief    in  fate,  in  destiny,  who 


MAN    VS.  FATE.  69 

reach  any  success,  always  comply  with  all  the 
conditions  of  the  sternest  success.  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  had  his  star,  his  fate,  his  destiny, — 
but  he  worked  nineteen  hours  a  day  and  slept 
five !  He  believed  in  fate — but  he  was  fate ! 
he  believed  in  himself !  Fate  is  the  God  of  a 
fool! 

Every  thinking  man  recognizes  that  truth. 
Go  with  me  a  moment  back  into  your  life — 
down  memory's  halls.  Let  us  turn  aside  into 
those  secret  chambers.  You  do  not  want  to 
go  in  ?  Why  not  ?  If  you  are  not  responsible 
for  any  of  it,  it  is  all  right.  You  could  not 
help  it !  You  hesitate ;  you  know  that  in  those 
rooms  there  are  the  ghosts  of  dead  hopes,  lost 
capacities,  noble  aspirations,  and  dark  spirits 
flapping  from  out  their  condor  wings  invisible 
woe !  You  know  that  these  walls  are  all  hung 
with  tapestry  wrought  by  your  own  fingers ; 
know,  too,  that  the  shuttle  of  no  fool's  fate 
ever  shot  athwart  those  tangled  threads.  You 
spun  them,  wove  them,  hung  them — they  are 
all  your  own ! 

No,  God  will  not  lasso  you   and  drag  you 


7©  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

into  heaven.  He  will  not  bind  you  hand  and 
foot  against  your  will  and  carry  you  captive 
into  the  courts  of  glory !  He  lets  down  at 
your  hands  the  rope  of  salvation  by  faith.  He 
will  not  lash  you  to  it  by  force.  You  must 
first  seize  it  and  swing  off ! 

The  law  of  the  land,  statutory  and  common, 
is  above  the  individual.  He  is  ruled  by  it, 
and  cannot  violate  it — yet  he  has  the  right  to 
dispose  of  himself  and  of  his  property  as  he 
pleases.  He  makes  his  will,  and  if  the  signa- 
ture to  that  will  is  genuine,  it  becomes  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  the  highest  tribunal  of  justice 
cannot,  dare  not,  set  it  aside !  So  do  you  in 
the  royal  chamber  of  your  soul  write  your  will, 
and  dispose  of  an  immortal  soul  and  its  immor- 
tal future.  The  law  of  God  is  above  you,  and 
rules  you,  but  your  will  becomes  the  law  of 
God  !  Heaven's  highest  court  admits  to  pro- 
bate that  will  unquestioned. 


THE  2UESTI0N  OF  HELL,  7^ 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL. 

"  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die." — Ez.  xviil.  20. 
"  And  these  shall  go  away  into  eternal  punishment,  but  the 
righteous  into  eternal  life." — Matt.  xxv.  46. 

Says  a  distinguished  infidel :  ''  I  honestly 
believe  that  the  doctrine  of  hell  was  born  in 
the  glittering  eyes  of  snakes  that  run  in  fright- 
ful coils  watching  for  their  prey.  I  believe  it 
was  born  in  the  yelping  and  howling  and  growl- 
ing and  snarling  of  wild  beasts.  I  believe  it 
was  born  in  the  grin  of  hyenas  and  in  the  ma- 
licious chatter  of  depraved  apes.  I  despise  it, 
I  defy  it,  and  I  hate  it."  So  do  I,  but  the  fact 
that  I  despise,  defy,  and  hate  it,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  bald  question  of  its  existence.  The 
glittering  eyes  of  snakes,  the  growling  and 
snarling  of  wild  beasts,  the  grin  of  hyenas  and 
chatter  of  depraved  apes,  are  horrible  facts  in 
nature;  but  the  horror  with  which  we  regard 
them  can  in  nowise  blot  out  the  facts;  and  it 


72  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

is  simply  childish  nonsense  to  go  into  hysterics 
over  the  horrors,  and  think  that  thereby  we 
may  discredit  the  facts.  I  hate  hell,  and  for 
that  very  reason  must  I  be  careful  lest  I  un- 
derestimate its  realities. 

The  religion  that  consists  in  a  desperate  at- 
tempt to  escape  hell  and  squeeze  into  heaven 
is  a  poor  religion — so  is  the  one  that  seeks  to 
frighten  folks  into  being  good  by  a  bloody 
picture  of  torment.  Yet  the  religion  that  con- 
sists in  wind  and  exclamation  points  on  hell, 
and  savage  attacks  on  orthodoxy,  offering  the 
hungry  human  heart  nothing  in  its  stead,  is 
poorer  still,  is  infinitely  meaner,  is  utterly  con- 
temptible I 

I  do  not  believe  in  Dante's  Inferno — the 
Bible  does  not  contain  it;  I  do  not  believe 
necessarily  in  a  hell  of  literal  fire  and  brim- 
stone, any  more  than  I  believe  in  a  heaven  that 
is  a  square  walled  city  with  gold  brick  pave- 
ments. The  inspired  writers  exhausted  the 
resources  of  human  language  in  the  effort  to 
convey  the  idea  of  heaven's  glory  and  of  hell's 
woe.     I  may  be  all  wrong  in  my  conceptions 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL.  73 

of  heaven,  but  its  joy  and  glory  will  be  none 
the  less  real  for  that  reason.  Orthodox  con- 
ceptions of  hell  maybe  all  more  or  less  wrong, 
but  its  horror  and  misery  will  be  none  the  less 
real  for  that  reason.  But  the  question  as  to 
the  materialism  of  the  future  life  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  discussion  of  the  question  in 
hand.  The  point  of  discussion  now  before  us 
is  a  very  simple  one.  Does  Hell  exist  ?  There 
is  an  impression  abroad  in  the  minds  of  many 
that  we  have  to-day  a  new  theology  that  has 
annihilated  hell.  No  graver  mistake  could  be 
made.  Unitarianism  and  Universalism  main- 
tain the  existence  of  an  awful  hell.  The  so- 
called  New  Theology  does  not  touch  the  ques- 
tion of  its  existence,  but  merely  puts  the  query : 
"  Will  not  those  who  have  not  heard  the  Gospel 
here,  hear  it  after  death  and  have  another 
chance  of  escape  ?  "  It  remains  for  an  atheism 
that  borders  upon  insanity  alone  to  enter  an 
absolute  denial.  And  yet  it  is  curious  to  note 
how  many  sensible  people  are  tricked  with 
such  puny  sentimentalism.  Can  such  a  denial 
be  maintained  for  a  moment  within  the  bounds 


74  LIVING  rROLLEMS. 

of  human  reason,  to  say  nothing  of  revelation  ? 
It  can  not.  We  look  about  us  and  are  con- 
fronted on  every  hand  with  facts  that  over- 
whelm us  with  the  conviction  of  its  reality. 
Appalled  at  its  horror  we  walk  round  about 
this  awful  fact  of  eternity  and  try  in  vain  to 
escape.  It  stands  confirmed  "  by  the  nature 
of  the  mind  of  God,  by  the  moral  forces  of  the 
universe,  by  the  prophetic  menace  of  the 
human  conscience,  and  by  the  analogies  of  all 
law."     So  that  we  are  forced  to  believe  that : 

Hell  is  not  a  dogma,  born  in  the  hnagination 
of  cunning  priests  and  used  to  terrorize  child- 
hood and  coerce  manhood  into  submission ; 
not  a  dogma,  but  a  necessity,  the  saddest,  stern- 
est necessity  of  the  universe. 

I.  It  is  a  necessity  of  Immortality.  He  who 
believes  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  must 
believe  in  hell.  Whatever  may  be  said  as  to 
the  abstract  question  of  immortality,  it  remains 
a  fact  that  in  spite  of  all  doubts  and  fears  we 
do  believe  in  man's  immortality.  This  belief 
is  a  part  of  us — woven  and  interwoven  into  the 
consciousness  of  personality  itself,  and  is  in- 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL.  75 

separable  from  our  being,  to  say  nothing  of  its 
confirmation  in  divine  revelation.  The  human 
soul  instinctively  cries:  "Believe  in  material- 
ism if  you  will,  but  I  am  immortal,  and  my  be- 
lief is  as  much  higher  and  nobler  than  yours, 
as  is  the  eagle,  whose  proud  wing  beats  the  air 
as  he  mounts  toward  the  sun,  higher  than  the 
toad  that  lives  upon  the  vapors  of  a  cellar." 

Then,  if  you  believe  in  immortality  you  must 
believe  in  hell.  After  death  we  must  all  go 
somewhere.  We  cannot  all  go  to  the  same 
place.  Certainly  we  cannot  all  go  to  heaven. 
To  thousands,  heaven  would  be  worse  than 
hell.  I  know  some  people  who,  when  they 
reach  the  other  shore  and  find  no  hell,  would 
make  one  in  short  order.  And  if  you  put  them 
off  into  a  section  of  heaven,  they  would  trans- 
form it  into  a  hell  upon  arrival.  The  old  story 
of  the  men  in  the  wrong  boat  admirably  illus- 
trates this  truth.  They  were  rushing  to  the 
shore  to  catch  their  boats.  One  was  chartered 
for  a  prize  fight,  the  other  for  a  Methodist 
camp-meeting  excursion.  As  the  whistles 
sounded  the  prize  fighter  rushed  on  the  camp 


76  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

meeting  boat,  and  the  Methodist  leaped  on  the 
deck  among  the  prize-ring  thugs.  When  they 
had  started,  the  good  brother  with  his  Bible 
under  his  arm  began  to  look  for  his  friends, 
but  could  find  only  groups  of  profane,  villain- 
ous-looking men,  cursing,  drinking,  and  play- 
ing cards.  With  tears  he  told  the  captain  of 
his  mistake  and  begged  to  be  put  off.  It  was 
a  hell  to  him.  The  prize  fighter  wandered 
about  the  other  boat  and  could  find  only  groups 
of  joyous  men  and  women  singing  sweet  songs, 
reading  the  Bible,  and  talking  about  religion. 
He  sought  in  vain  for  something  to  drink,  for 
congenial  companionship.  He,  too,  sought 
the  captain,  and,  cursing  the  whole  establish- 
ment, offered  all  the  money  he  had  to  be  put 
off  anywhere — on  a  desert  island — on  a  rock 
— anywhere  that  he  might  escape  those  songs 
and  such  companionship.  It  was  a  hell  of  tor- 
ment to  him. 

Here  is  a  man  whose  soul  is  going  down, 
down,  down,  into  deeper  depths  of  infamy 
from  day  to  day.  He  dies.  Will  his  soul  cease 
to  descend  and  begin  to  ascend — yea,  turn  in 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL.  77 

its  downward  flight  and  leap  into  heaven  ? 
Can  the  stone  dropped  from  the  pinnacle, 
pause  of  itself  in  the  descent,  and,  turning,  re- 
mount to  greater  heights  ?  Death  is  a  mere 
physical  incident.  Can  a  physical  incident 
work  such  a  moral  transformation  ?  No,  we 
say  it  is  absurd.  A  mere  physical  change  does 
not  work  a  moral  revolution.  Souls,  then,  that 
are  descending  at  death,  are  expected  to  con- 
tinue that  descent.  Souls  that  are  ascending 
at  death  may  expect  to  rise  to  greater  heights. 

11.  It  is  a  necessity  of  Law.  Philosophers, 
great  and  small,  have  ceased  to  maintain  that 
this  world  was  born  of  chance,  or  that  it  is  run 
by  chance.  The  spirit  of  the  age  bows  before 
the  universal  reign  of  law.  Law  reigns  su- 
preme in  the  physical  and  moral  worlds.  Chaos 
no  longer  broods  over  Nature.  We  have  come 
to  make  nature  and  law  almost  interchangeable 
terms.  We  realize  that  Nature  acts  with  fear- 
ful uniformity.  God  and  man  may  forgive, 
but  Nature  never.  The  name  of  Vengeance,  of 
Nemesis,  is  Nature! 

So  must  the  moral  universe  be  subject  to 


78  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  reign  of  law.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
law  without  penalty.  Penalty  is  a  part  of  the 
very  definition  of  law  itself.  Law  that  is  vio- 
lated with  impunity  ceases  to  be  law.  Nature's 
laws  violated  wreck  vengeance  on  the  violator. 
Moral  law  wilfully  and  persistently  violated 
must  impose  its  penalty  or  cease  to  exist. 
That  penalty  is  hell.  If  there  is  no  hell  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  moral  law,  which  no  sane 
man  can  maintain.  Is  there  no  justice  for  the 
past?  Has  there  been  and  will  there  be  no 
adjustment  of  the  wrongs  of  the  ages  ?  Will 
the  dismantled  cities,  crumbled  empires,  en- 
slaved nations,  lost  tribes,  and  dead  races  cry  in 
vain  for  justice  ?  Will  the  cry  of  the  weak,  of 
the  oppressed,  of  the  wronged,  of  the  down- 
trodden, in  the  past,  the  present,  the  future, 
forever  ascend  and  find  no  ear  to  hear,  and  no 
heart  to  pity  ?  If  chaos  rules  the  moral  world, 
yes, — if  law,  then  a  thousand  times,  no ! 

III.  It  is  a  necessity  of  Love.  "  God  is  love." 
It  is  curious  to  note  the  uses  men  have  tried 
to  make  of  this  sublime  revelation.  There  is  a 
class  of  sentimentalists  that  play  forever  on 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL,  79 

this  one  string.  They  reject  the  plain  teaching 
of  the  Bible  on  the  punishment  of  the  wicked. 
They  seek  to  destroy  all  sensible  theories  of 
inspiration — in  fact  they  absolutely  reject  the 
Bible,  and  yet  in  the  next  breath,  proclaim  a 
universal  pardon  for  the  race,  because,  "  God 
is  love !  "  Where  did  they  learn  that  God  is 
love  ?  They  did  not  learn  it  in  their  own  souls, 
for  an  avenging  conscience  is  there  telling  of 
righteousness  and  judgment.  They  did  not 
learn  it  in  the  book  of  Nature.  Nature  is 
cruel  and  pitiless.  That  revelation  can  be 
found  nowhere  in  the  universe  save  within  the 
lids  of  the  Bible,  and  this  Book  of  books  they 
have  spurned.  Their  hope  of  eternal  life  rests 
upon  the  sentence,  "  God  is  love,"  Vv^hich  can 
be  found  only  in  His  Book,  where  alongside 
this  declaration,  the  way  of  eternal  life  is 
marked  out  and  made  so  plain  that  a  wayfar- 
ing man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein, 
and  the  penalty  of  hell  hurled  against  those 
who  wilfully  reject  this  way. 

Even  an  Ingersoll  hopes!     "In  the  night  of 
death  hope  sees  a  star,  and  listening  love  hears 


8o  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  rustle  of  a  wing,"  he  says  ;  and  yet  forgets 
that  the  star  he  sees  is  the  Star  of  Bethlehem, 
and  the  rustle  of  the  wing  he  hears,  is  the  rus- 
tle of  the  angel's  wing  o'er  the  broken  sepul- 
chre! 

God  is  love;  but  love  is  just.  Justice  is  the 
foundation  of  love.  Love  that  is  unjust,  ceases 
to  be  love  and  becomes  a  mere  maudlin  senti- 
mentalism.  The  Bible  does  not  teach  that  all 
who  sin  are  to  receive  the  same  punishment — 
to  be  pitchforked  into  a  burning  cauldron  and 
stirred  up  together.  It  teaches  that  some  shall 
be  beaten  with  few  stripes,  others  with  many, 
and  that  this  punishment  will  vary  m  propor- 
tion to  the  light  each  has  had. 

The  judge  who  loves  his  people  and  loves 
his  country,  must  always  be  just.  When  Web- 
ster, the  murderer  of  Parkman,  was  brought  be- 
fore Judge  Shaw  to  be  sentenced  for  his  atro- 
cious deed,  he  stood  face  to  face  wath  his  old 
friend  and  schoolmate.  The  judge,  as  he  gazed 
upon  him,  was  overwhelmed  by  the  memory 
of  those  years  of  companionship  and  love,  and 
while  the  great  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks. 


THE  QUESTION  OF  HELL.  8 1 

he  pronounced  sentence  of  death.  Was  that 
sentence  inconsistent  with  the  highest  love  of 
humanity  ?  Was  it  right,  or  wrong  ?  If  right, 
then  it  was  subhme  in  its  righteousness.  If 
wrong,  then  it  was  infinitely  damnable. 

God  is  love,  and  because  of  this  very  fact 
there  must  be  a  hell.  If  God  is  love,  those  who 
know  God,  must  know  love  ;  therefore  those 
who  do  not  love  cannot  go  to  God,  They 
must  go  somewhere,  and  where  they  go  is  hell. 

In  East  Boston  a  short  time  ago  a  man 
named  Tom  Rowland  took  his  loaded  revolver, 
went  into  his  wife's  room,  and  seized  by  the 
throat  her  whom  he  had  promised  to  cherish, 
to  tenderly  care  for,  and  love,  and  sent  two 
bullets  crashing  through  her  bosom.  As  she 
lay  at  his  feet  upon  the  floor  dying,  weltering 
in  her  blood,  the  love  of  woman  rose  trium- 
phant o'er  the  awful  wrong,  and  looking  up 
she  feebly  said :  "  Kneel  down  here,  Tom,  and 
let  me  tell  you  how  I  forgive  you !  "  His  only 
answer  was  to  curse  and  kick  her  as  she  ex- 
pired.     He    then  turned    and    sent    a   bullet 

through  his  own  brain  and  fell  dead.     Where 
6 


82  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

did  that  infernal  brute  go  ?  He  died  with 
curses  lodged  in  his  clinched  teeth,  with  the 
scowl  of  hell  upon  his  brow,  with  every  drop 
of  his  foul  blood  boiling  and  hissing  with  eter- 
nal hate!  God  is  Love.  He  was  the  incarnate 
fiend  of  Hate  !  where  did  he  go  ? 

I  hate  hell,  but  it  is  an  awful  fact.  As  a  fact 
it  confronts  us.  As  a  fact  it  must  be  met.  If 
I  could  bridge  hell  with  doubt  I  would  gladly 
do  it.  I  would  rear  a  mountain  where  the 
chasm  now  yawns!  I  cannot  understand  all 
the  dark  mysteries  of  that  world  of  woe.  The 
traveller  bends  o'er  the  unspeaking  precipice 
and  drops  a  stone  to  sound  its  depths.  He 
listens  to  hear  the  thud  in  the  valley  below. 
No  sound  returns.  Only  dead  silence  reigns. 
He  drops  another,  and  listens  and  hears  only 
the  throb  of  his  own  heart.  So  I  approach 
this  unspeaking  precipice.  I  try  in  vain  to 
sound  its  depths.  There  comes  no  response, 
save  that  in  the  deep  of  its  black  gloom  I  see 
written  in  letters  of  fire,  woe!  WOE!  " 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         83 


MIRACLES   AND    ROBERT    ELSMERE. 
The  Presumption  Against  a  Miracle. 

If  I  do  not  the  works  of  my  Father,  believe  me  not.  But  if  I 
do  them,  though  ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works. — 
John  x.,  37,  38. 

The  age  in  which  we  live  is  a  stirring  one. 
It  is  an  age  of  stern  questioning.  All  things 
are  being  cast  into  the  crucible  and  tried  by  a 
fire  seven  times  hotter  than  usual.  I  am  glad 
of  it.  I  am  glad  I  live  in  this  age.  I  like  it. 
I  rejoice  in  the  widespread  interest  mani- 
fested in  such  a  book  as  "  Robert  Elsmere." 
Out  of  such  conflicts  always  come  life  and 
growth.  I  am  not  afraid  Truth  will  suffer. 
Conflict  only  burnishes  the  shield  and  sharpens 
the  sword  of  Truth,  and  she  comes  forth 
brighter  and  more  radiant  than  ever.  I  do  not 
nurse  my  creed  as  a  tender  babe,  jealous  of  every 
wind.  If  my  creed  cannot  take  care  of  itself  it 
will  have  to  suffer,  that  is  all.     If  I  am  wrong 


§4  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

I  want  to  know  it,  and  the  sooner  I  know  it 
the  better. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  ehminate  the 
supernatural  from  our  reHgion,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  destroy  Christ  in  order  to  preserve 
Christianity. 

The  book  is  founded  on  a  supposition  that 
is  not  a  fact,  namely,  that  there  is  an  over- 
whelming presumption  against  the  possibility 
of  a  miracle,  so  overwhelming  that  the  ordinary 
laws  of  evidence  will  not  hold  good  to  try  the 
case.  This  is  a  purely  gratuitous  supposition 
and  can  be  easily  proven  to  be  false. 

A  miracle  is  defined  to  be  "  an  event  or  an 
occurrence  which  cannot  be  explained  by  any 
known  law  of  nature;  a  deviation  from  the  es- 
tablished laws  of  nature." 

Is  there,  then,  an  overwhelming  presumption 
against  the  possibility  of  a  miracle  ? 

I.  Certainly  the  uniformity  of  nature  cannot 
be  legitimately  used  to  prove  that  a  miracle  may 
not  occur.  It  is  very  common  now,  however,  to 
have  this  fallacy  presented  as  an  all-sufficient 
argument.     In  fact,  this  seems  now  to  be  the 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         85 

principal  stock  in  trade  of  our  so-called  scien- 
tific free-thinkers. 

This  is  an  old  conflict,  and  the  ground  of 
battle  has  shifted  with  every  age.  Celsus, 
Porphyry,  Julian,  and  Hierocles,  the  great  in- 
fidels of  the  first  three  or  four  centuries,  each 
attacked  the  miracles  of  Christ,  but  each  on 
grounds  so  antagonistic  as  to  destroy  the  force 
of  their  work  as  a  whole.  From  Hierocles  to 
Spinoza  and  Mill  it  was  popular  with  the  windy 
philosophers  of  that  age  to  dogmatically  assert 
that  a  miracle  was  impossible,  and  that,  there- 
fore, no  amount  of  evidence  could  establish 
one.  The  philosophy  of  Spinoza  and  Mill 
placed  a  quietus  on  this  sort  of  idiocy,  and  now 
our  philosophic  gymnasts  are  cutting  somer- 
saults over  the  continuity  of  natural  law  or  the 
uniformity  of  nature. 

The  universal  postulate  of  science  is  the  as- 
sumption that  nature  will  be  found  to  be  uni- 
form. This  postulate  is  the  boundary  line  of 
the  outermost  horizon  of  the  scientific  world. 
Of  that  which  does  not  conform  to  the  known 
laws  of  nature,  science  can  give  no  information, 


S6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

because  outside  of  its  realm.  Science,  then, 
as  such,  can  never  acknowledge  a  miracle,  can 
never  prove  a  miracle  or  disprove  one.  Sci- 
ence can  only  admit  that,  so  far  as  the  evidence 
goes,  an  event  has  happened  which  lies  outside 
its  province.  The  fact  that  the  alleged  mira- 
cle breaks  the  observed  uniformity  of  nature 
could  never  destroy  the  grounds  of  its  credi- 
bility, unless  we  maintain  the  absurd  position 
that  all  the  ultimate  secrets  of  the  universe  are 
contained  within  the  province  of  the  now  known 
laws  of  nature. 

The  uniformity  of  nature  is  merely  an  as- 
sumption based  on  a  number  of  observations. 
If  the  miracle  be  true,  then  uniformity,  in  that 
far,  could  not  be  asserted. 

Therefore,  to  plead  the  uniformity  of  nature 
against  the  possibility  of  a  miracle  is  simply  to 
beg  the  question.  The  issue  is,  "  Was  the  uni- 
formity broken  ?  "  To  assert  "  No,  it  was  not 
broken,  because  nature  is  observed  to  be  uni- 
form," is  to  walk  forever  in  the  lost  man's  cir- 
cle, to  come  back  each  time  to  the  place  from 
which  we  started,  and  to  prove  or  disprove 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         87 

nothing.  For  if  the  evidence  establish  the  fact 
of  the  miracle,  the  alleged  uniformity  ceases  to 
be  a  fact,  and  we  must  look  for  a  new  law  or  a 
higher  law.  It  is  an  impossibility,  therefore, 
that  science  can  now  raise  an  overwhelming 
presumption  against  the  occurrence  of  a  mira- 
cle. 

It  has  become  popular  nowadays  with  a 
certain  class  of  people  to  crown  the  scientist 
with  a  halo  of  infallibility,  and  to  accept  as  an 
established  fact  that  what  he  does  not  know  is 
not  worth  knowing.  I  believe  in  science,  I  de- 
fer to  it,  I  love  it;  but  the  realm  of  science  is 
as  yet  a  very  small  one,  and  man  may  know 
and  does  know  many  things  that  are  not  sci- 
entific. Within  his  province  I  acknowledge 
the  right  of  the  scientist  to  speak  with  author- 
ity. Here,  say,  is  a  man  who  devotes  all  his 
life  to  the  study  of  the  anatomy  of  a  gnat.  He 
has  caught  gnats,  harnessed  gnats,  trained 
gnats.  He  has  butchered  gnats,  dissected  them, 
roasted,  fried,  and  parboiled  them.  He  has 
particularly  and  generally  analyzed  gnats.  On 
the  subject  of  gnats  I  agree  at  once  that  he  is 


88  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

an  authority,  an  expert  gnatist.  But  he  is  not 
satisfied  to  stay  within  his  domain.  He  longs 
to  make  wild  generalizations  from  small  pre- 
mises. He  leaps  upon  the  lecture  platform, 
strikes  a  dramatic  attitude,  and  exclaims: 
"Behold!  I  see  a  gnat  on  yonder  mountain, 
miles  away!"  This  would  not  be  so  bad,  but 
when  he  solemnly  swears  he  cannot  see  the 
mountain,  we  beg  here  to  draw  the  line! 

Besides  this,  within  his  realm  the  scientist  is 
still  a  man  liable  to  be  mistaken.  Mr.  Bobart, 
the  director  of  a  scientific  garden  at  Oxford, 
it  is  said,  found  in  the  museum  one  day  a  dead 
rat.  He  took  this  rat,  split  its  head,  feet,  and 
tail,  drawing  them  in  a  peculiar  way,  and 
pressed  and  dried  it.  When  in  proper  condi- 
tion, he  submitted  it  to  a  group  of  scientists 
for  classification.  They  labored  for  days  over 
the  puzzling  problem,  and  at  length  made  their 
report,  declaring  the  specimen  to  be  a  dragon! 
They  wrote  learned  essays  and  even  poems 
about  this  surviving  example  of  a  long-lost 
species.  A  rat !  A  cat  would  have  known 
better.     No,  we  cannot  yet  accept  the  dogma 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         89 

of  scientific  infallibility  even  within  the  limits 
of  science  proper. 

But  religion  has  no  real  quarrel  with  science 
over  miracles.  The  scientist  must  believe  in 
miracles,  else  the  domain  of  science  itself  be- 
comes a  hopeless  riddle.  Indeed,  so  far  from 
the  scientist  being  able  to  eliminate  miracles 
from  the  universe,  he  takes  the  student  by 
the  hand,  leads  him  up  face  to  face  with  a 
miracle,  and  leaves  him  there. 

Even  granting,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
that  evolution  is  an  established  scientific  fact, 
the  working  hypothesis  of  the  theory  of  evo- 
lution involves  three  miracles. 

First,  the  transformation  of  dead  matter  into 
life.  Spontaneous  generation  is  a  bubble  long 
since  exploded.  No  respectable  scientist  holds 
that  life  spontaneously  grew  from  death.  Life 
comes  only  from  life.  Who  supplied  the  first 
spark  of  life  ?  No  man  has  ever  yet  bridged 
the  chasm  that  separates  dead  matter  from 
live  matter.  The  chasm  yawns,  as  deep,  as 
dark,  as  unfathomable  as  ever.  From  its  in- 
finite   depths   man    has    ever   heard   but   one 


90  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

voice — the  voice  of  Almighty  God,  Creator  of 
Heaven  and  Earth  !  Here,  then,  is  the  great 
miracle  of  the  ages.  We  know  that  dead 
matter  has  become  live  matter,  and  that  some 
power  "  which  cannot  be  explained  by  any 
known  law  of  nature;  a  deviation  from  the 
established  laws  of  nature,"  caused  this  trans- 
formation. Mr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Huxley  and 
all  the  hosts  of  science,  lead  us  here  and  stand 
dumb  before  this  miracle  of  miracles.  "  How 
did  it  happen  ?  '  cries  the  world.  They  reply 
in  a  whisper:  "  First  Cause!  "  "Force!"  They 
have  renamed  God,  and  call  him  "  First 
Cause ;  "  they  have  renamed  the  supernatural, 
and  call  it  "  Force."  That  is,  they  have  reached 
the  precipice,  the  outermost  limits  of  the  world 
of  science.  To  make  their  ov/n  laws  intelligi- 
ble they  must  believe  in  a  higher  law,  and  yet 
they  content  themselves  by  juggling  with 
words  ! 

Again,  the  supposed  transformation  of  the 
vegetable  into  the  animal  has  never  yet  been 
explained.  How  the  cabbage-head  became  a 
monkey  is  yet  an  unsolved  riddle.    "  It  cannot 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         9^ 
be  explained  by  any  known  law  of  nature;  "  it 
certainly  is  "  a  deviation  from  the  established 
laws  of  nature."     Here,  then,  science  leads  us 
up  to  a  second  miracle,  and  the  man  who  be- 
lieves in  the  theory  of  evolution  must  accept  it. 
And  then  how  the  brute  became  a  man  is  yet 
a  mystery.    How  the  monkey  became  a  Shake- 
speare is  an  unsolved  riddle.     How  the  whin- 
ing brute  became  the  proud,  erect,  God-hke 
man,  with  a  heart  that  throbs  with  the  joys 
and  sorrows  of  ages,  past,  present,  and  future, 
"  cannot  be   explained  by  any  known   law  of 
nature."      This  consciousness   of  personality; 
this  throbbing,  immortal  soul  that  yearns  for 
the  eternal  and  infinite,  whence   come  they? 
Here,  then,  we  are  confronted  by  a  third  mira- 
cle.   How,  then,  can  science  raise  any  presump- 
tion against  the  occurrence  of  a  miracle,  to  say 
nothing    of     an    overwhelming     presumption 
against  its  possibility! 

H.  Every  rational  man  is  every  day  a  witness 
to  the  occurrence  of  a  miracle  within  the  bounds 
of  his  own  personal  consciousness.  Every  sane 
man  is  conscious  of  the  exercise  of  a  free  will. 


92  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

The  actions  of  a  free  will  "  cannot  be  explained 
by  any  known  law  of  nature."  They  are  "  a 
deviation  from  all  the  known  laws  of  nature.'* 
Science  can  never  hope  to  reduce  all  phenom- 
ena to  absolute  unity,  so  long  as  a  whole  class 
of  observed  phenomena,  mainly  all  those  that 
belong  to  the  action  of  the  human  will,  are  to 
be  excluded  from  its  postulate  of  invariable 
sequence.  So  far  as  science  is  concerned  the 
human  will  is  a  miracle.  Can  science,  there- 
fore, prove  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  will  ? 
The  human  will  every  day  interferes  with  the 
law  of  nature's  uniformity.  If  a  human  will 
can  thus  interfere  with  the  law  of  uniformity, 
as  every  child  knows  that  it  does,  is  it  not  more 
than  probable  that  behind  some  phenomena 
may  lurk  the  interference  of  some  other  will 
higher  than  man's  ?  In  the  human  will,  we  are 
confronted  with  a  fourth  miracle. 

III.  The  experience  of  millions  of  reliable 
witnesses  testifies  to  the  occurrence  of  another 
miracle,  namely,  the  transformation  of  the 
natural  man  into  the  spiritual  man — conver- 
sion.    The  conversion  of  a  man  from  sin  and 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         93 

selfishness  to  love  and  holiness,  from  the  things 
he  delighted  in   to  those  that  he  hated,  is  a 
mystery    that  "  cannot   be  explained  by    any 
known  law  of  nature."     How  the  desperado  is 
transformed  into  the  saint  we  do  not  know, 
but  we  do  know  that  the  way  in  which  it  is 
done  is  "  a  deviation  from  the  known  laws  of 
nature."     Take  the  case  of  Rowdy  Brown,  as 
related  by  Dr.  Pierson.     He  was  one  of  the 
noted  toughs  of  lower  New  York.     He  was  a 
large,  strong,  bold  fellow,  who  united  the  bru- 
tality of  a  savage  with  the  ferocity  of  a  wild 
beast.     Passing  a  man  who  was  seated  on  the 
forecastle  of  a  Liverpool  packet  quietly  read- 
ing his   Bible,  Brown,  in  pure  malice,  kicked 
him  so  violently  in  the  mouth  as  to  knock  out 
his  teeth;  and  this  ruffian  had  killed  men  in 
California.     Hearing  of  the  conversion  of  one 
of  his  sailor-mates  at  the  Water  Street  Mission, 
he  swore  that  he  would  go  down  there,  and  if 
that  fellow  should  get  up  to  talk,  he  would 
force  open  his  jaws  and  empty  a  bottle  of  whis- 
key down  his  throat.     He  went  with  his  bottle. 
But  there  was  a  power  there  on  whose  resist- 


94  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

ance  to  his  devilish  plot  he  had  not  counted. 
While  waiting  for  his  time  to  come  he  became 
strangely  moved  himself;  a  new  sensation,  a 
violent  trembling  overmastered  him.  He 
could  not  even  flee ;  the  crowd  was  too  dense, 
and  his  strength  was  gone.  By  the  time  his 
old  chum  was  giving  his  testimony,  Rowdy 
Brown  was  ready  to  faint ;  and  when,  at  the 
close  of  the  testimonies,  inquirers  were  invited 
to  come  forward,  he  startled  the  whole  com- 
pany by  dropping  on  his  knees  and  crying, 
'Pray  for  me!'  The  excitement  was  intense. 
He  yelled  and  groaned  for  mercy,  while  his 
awakened  conscience  rocked  and  racked  even 
his  huge  frame.  Two  nights  of  tempest  passed 
before  he  heard  the  voice  that  speaks  the  soul 
into  calm.  But  when  he  did  get  peace,  he 
leaped  from  bed  at  midnight  and  roused  the 
whole  house  with  his  shouts  of  praise.  Rowdy 
Brown  no  sooner  found  Christ  than  he  found 
work  for  Christ.  In  his  intense  passion  to 
save  men  he  would  actually  pick  up  bodily  and 
carry  some  sailor  to  the  mission  and  set  down 
the  astonished  man  on  the  anxious-seat,  and 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         95 

then  plead  and  pray  with  him  till  the  heat  of 
his  own  ardor  and  fervor  melted  him  into  sub- 
mission to  Christ. 

Whence  came  this  new  power  in  the  life  of 
this  desperado  ?  The  miracle  of  conversion 
alone  explains  it. 

What  else  can  explain  the  self-sacrifice  and 
devotion  of  a  thousand  Christian  lives  you  have 
known  ?  We  are  told  that  a  Greek  architect 
was  commissioned  by  a  Roman  emperor  to 
build  a  great  colosseum.  He  was  told  that  suc- 
cess in  the  plans  meant  for  him  fame  and  for- 
tune. The  plans  were  perfected,  the  building 
erected,  and  the  Emperor  was  charmed  with 
the  work.  On  the  day  of  the  grand  opening 
the  Emperor  rose  before  the  multitude  and 
pronounced  all  honor  upon  the  architect.  To 
celebrate  the  occasion  he  ordered  Christians  to 
be  brought  forth  from  their  prisons  and  fed  to 
hungry  lions  and  tigers.  When  the  shouts 
over  the  bloody  scene  had  died  away,  in  one 
of  the  galleries  the  Greek  architect  arose  and 
shouted  until  the  vast  assemblage  heard  :  "  I, 
too,  am  a  Christian !  "     They  seized  him  and 


9^  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

threw  him  into  the  arena  and  his  body  was  torn 
into  shreds!  There  must  have  been  a  marvel- 
lous change  somewhere  in  the  character  of 
that  Greek— some  power  other  than  human 
must  have  lifted  him  from  his  seat  of  honor 
that  day! 

Yes,  in  the  conversion  of  a  soul  we  are  face 
to  face  with  a  fifth  miracle. 

The  facts  in  the  case,  then,  are  that  experi- 
ence testifies  to  a  m.iracle  every  day  for  nearly 
2,000  years  in  the  conversion  of  a  soul.  Per- 
sonal consciousness  testifies  to  a  miracle  in  the 
human  will  every  day  since  the  morning  of 
creation,  when  man  first  said:  "  I  will."  Sci- 
ence leads  us  up  to  at  least  three  miracles.  A 
miracle,  then,  has  certainly  happened  some- 
where, and  if  a  miracle  has  ever  occurred  any- 
where it  may  occur  everywhere.  How,  then, 
can  there  be  any  presumption  against  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  miracle? 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         97 


MIRACLES   AND   ROBERT    ELSMERE. 
The  Question  of  Evidence. 

"  I  and  the  Father  are  one." — John,  x.  30. 

We  have  seen  in  the  first  examination  of 
this  subject  that  there  is  no  overwhelming  prob- 
abiHty  against  the  occurrence  of  a  miracle. 
The  ordinary  laws  of  evidence,  therefore,  are 
all  that  we  need  to  try  the  case.  But  the  key 
argument  which  apparently  overturns  the 
faith  of  our  hero  is  Wendover's  new  theory  of 
testimony.  His  theory  is  that  testimony  is  a 
science  that  has  only  reached  a  condition  of 
order  and  credibility  in  modern  times;  that 
early  witnesses  being  unacquainted  with  this 
science  did  not  know  how  to  testify  scientifi- 
cally, and,  therefore,  lied.  That  expert,  or 
scientific  testimony  alone  is  to  be  believed. 
At  first  glance  this  theory  may  seem  reasona- 
ble. At  a  second  glance  it  is  obviously  absurd. 
At  a  third  glance  it  becomes  nothing  short  of 
7 


98  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

a  monstrosity.  According  to  such  a  theory, 
Plutarch,  Caesar,  Tacitus,  Xenophon,  and  Her- 
odotus, are  not  credible  witnesses,  because  for- 
sooth they  did  not  live  in  our  day.  According 
to  such  a  theory,  we  would  crucify  Xenophon 
and  crown  Zola,  the  modern  apostle  of  putre- 
faction; we  would  outlaw  Plutarch,  and  can- 
nonize  IngersoU  as  a  teacher  of  men!  How 
utterly  absurd  !  The  truth  is  "  expert  "  testi- 
mony may  be  the  most  utterly  worthless  testi- 
mony given  in  any  court  of  justice,  or  inquiry. 
Put  two  experts  on  the  witness  stand  repre- 
senting different  sides  of  the  same  case  and  ask 
them  for  information  about  the  same  thing. 
When  they  have  finished,  the  court  is  usually 
overwhelmed  by  an  impenetrable  fog  of  lies. 
The  simple  man  who  does  not  know  how  to 
tell  a  lie,  is  the  most  credible  witness.  The 
author  only  saves  Wendover,  the  character 
who  advances  this  theory,  from  utter  contempt 
by  intimating  that  he  is  the  product  of  a  streak 
of  hereditary  insanity.  And  yet  this  theory, 
with  insanity  as  its  apology,  is  allowed  to  an- 
nihilate Elsmere's  religion  without  a  struggle. 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.         99 

The  next  main  argument  is  likewise  based 
on  assumptions  that  cannot  be  established  by 
the  facts  of  history.  We  are  told  that  the  age 
in  which  Christ  wrought  was  an  age  of  mira- 
cles and  wonders.  That  the  air  was  teeming 
with  them.  That  no  great  man  appeared  whose 
name  was  not  surrounded  by  such  a  halo,  and 
that  the  people  held  the  simplest  child-like 
faith  in  the  supernatural.  This  is  not  true. 
The  age  was  a  superstitious  one ;  but  it  was 
far  from  being  an  age  of  simple  faith.  It  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  age  characterized  by  the 
decay  of  all  faiths.  The  temples  of  Greece 
and  Rome  were  deserted.  "  Stoicism  had  be- 
come a  rock.  Epicureanism  was  wallowing  in 
filth."  Infidelity,  atheism,  and  scepticism  were 
everywhere  rampant.  And  o'er  the  crumb- 
ling ruins  of  the  religions  of  the  ancient  worlds, 
Pilate  peers  into  the  face  of  Jesus  and  asks, 
"  What  is  truth?  "  And  did  the  air  teem  with 
miracles?"  If  so,  why  were  none  wrought  in 
the  childhood  of  Christ?  If  so,  how  could  such 
a  man  as  John  the  Baptist  sweep  like  a  cy- 
clone over  the  country  and  yet  it  should  be 


loO  LIVING  PROBLEMS, 

recorded  of  him  by  both  friend  and  foe,  "John 
wrought  no  miracles." 

The  question  then  arises,  What  is  the  evi- 
dence in  hand  ?  We  have  historic  documents, 
whose  genuineness  is  not  questioned,  which 
contain  the  direct  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  His  disciples  to  the  fact  of  these  miracles. 
We  must  accept  this  testimony,  provided  the 
remaining  body  of  their  testimony  is  found 
consistent  with  truth,  and  the  character  of 
the  witnesses  can  stand  the  severest  test.  A 
witness  stands  or  falls  upon  the  whole  of  that 
to  which  he  testifies,  and  that  whole  must  al- 
ways rest  upon  character  for  a  foundation.  Tes- 
timony that  is  thus  consistent  and  harmonious 
as  a  whole,  given  by  one  whose  character  is 
unimpeachable,  must  be  accepted  as  the  truth 
by  all  fair-minded  men. 

Unity  and  character,  therefore,  are  the  two 
elements  of  credibility  in  personal  testimony. 

It  requires  no  argument  to  prove  that  the 
body  of  Christian  doctrine  set  forth  by  Christ 
in  person  and  through  His  disciples  is  uni- 
form and  consistent.     It  stands  confirmed  by 


MIR  A  CLES  A  XD  ROBER  T  ELSMERE.       i  o  I 

the  testimony  of  more  than  eighteen  cent- 
uries. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  said  of  the  character 
of  the  witnesses  ?  Let  us  take  the  central 
figure,  Christ  himself. 

On  examination  we  find  the  known  facts  in 
the  life  of  Christ  present  us  with  a  character 
of  spotless  purity  and  a  personality  absolutely 
unique;  indeed  the  supreme  miracle  of  history, 
a  miracle  that  makes  more  than  probable,  yea, 
proves  all  the  other  miracles  of  the  gospels. 

I.  All  men,  believers  and  unbelievers,  unite 
in  testifying  to  His  goodness,  to  His  perfection 
— that  He  was  the  highest  and  holiest,  and 
noblest  man  this  world  ever  saw. 

n.  He  never  worked  or  claimed  to  work  a 
miracle  for  show.  They  were  always  wrought 
naturally  in  the  course  of  His  ministry.  They 
were  the  natural  outflow  of  the  divine  life 
within  Him.  They  were  prophetic  and  sym- 
bolic of  a  world's  salvation,  and  were  conceived 
and  animated  by  the  noblest  purpose.  He  did 
not  peep  and  mutter  in  the  dark,  use  incanta- 
tions, or  jugglery.     He  unstopped  the  ears  of 


I02  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  deaf,  and  the  world  turns  to  Him  to  hear 
the  words  of  eternal  life.  He  opens  the  eyes 
of  the  blind  that  man  might  not  stumble ;  cures 
the  sick,  feeds  the  hungry  for  pity's  sake;  stills 
the  sea  to  calm  the  fears  of  those  who  loved 
Him;  raises  the  dead,  that  He  may  wipe  the 
tears  from  the  eyes  of  those  who  weep.  These 
miracles  were  as  clearly  not  the  product  of  a 
superstitious  age,  as  that  modern  jugglery  and 
necromancy  are  not  the  product  of  the  gospels. 

He  declared  that  He  did  these  works  by  di- 
vine power.  He  declared  that  He  was  the  ful- 
filment of  prophecy  and  law — the  promised 
Messiah. 

He  declared  that  He  was  God.  "  I  and  the 
Father  are  one."  He  spoke  with  authority  and 
not  as  the  scribes. 

He  was  either  insane,  an  impostor,  or  Jesus, 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  the 
world.  No  man  has  ever  claimed  that  He  was 
insane.  Friend  and  foe  agree  that  He  was 
good,  that  He  was  upright,  that  He  was  the 
truest  and  noblest  man  who  ever  lived.  If  He 
was  a  true  man,  then  He  could  not  be  an  im- 


MIR  A  CLES  A  ND  R  OBER  T  EL  SMERE.       1 03 

poster.     The  conclusion  is  overwhelming,  then, 
that  He  was  what  He  claimed  to  be. 

HI.  His  character  is  a  miracle  that  proves 
His  claims,  and  He  is  Himself  His  own  vindi- 
cation. Think  of  it  for  a  moment.  All  great 
men  do  suggest  still  with  their  greatness,  nar- 
row individuality.  Watt  suggests  the  inventor. 
Napoleon  the  warrior,  Pitt  the  statesman;  but 
Christ  was  the  Son  of  man — the  highest  ex- 
pression of  the  universal  genius  of  humanity 
— this,  too,  in  spite  of  His  birth.  The  Greek 
has  his  national  characteristics  and  weaknesses 
so  the  Roman,  and  the  Carthaginian.  The 
Jew  was  of  all  men  most  pronounced  in  his 
race  prejudices  and  characteristics.  The  world 
has  forgotten  that  Christ  was  a  Jew.  There 
was  in  Him  the  mysterious  and  perfect  balance 
of  severity  and  gentleness,  of  purity  and  yet 
the  power  to  mingle  with  the  impure.  His 
purity  was  not  of  the  human  sort,  for  He  at- 
tracted instead  of  repelling  the  impure.  His 
magnanimity  and  self-denial  were  god-like. 
He  first  taught  the  world  to  love  an  enemy,  and 
His  sweet  voice  in  the  agonies  of  Calvary  yet 


I04  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

startles  the  world  as  He  exclaims:  "Father, 
forgive  them,  they  know  not  what  they  do!" 
Such  a  character  has  never  before  or  since  be- 
longed to  mere  man.  He  must  have  been 
more  than  man. 

IV.  History  has  established  the  truth  of  His 
claims;  for  the  supernatural  can  be  the  only 
possible  solution  of  the  results  that  have  fol- 
lowed His  life  and  death.  Circumstantial  evi- 
dence thus  adds  its  weight  to  an  invincible 
personal  testimony. 

We  remember  that  He  was  born  of  obscure 
parentage  in  a  little  village  in  Judea.  He  was 
born  in  poverty  and  obscurity,  and  was  never 
given  the  advantages  of  an  education.  His 
ministry  only  lasted  about  three  years,  and  He 
was  crucified  in  disgrace  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
three.  And  yet  Mr.  Lecky,  the  historian,  testi- 
fies that  the  love  mankind  has  borne  Him  has 
been  one  of  the  wonders  of  all  generations. 
Yes,  men  have  loved  Him  with  a  love  so  tri- 
umphant that  they  have  walked  bare-footed 
and  blind-folded  over  burning  ploughshares 
for  His  name's  sake.     They  have  gazed  into 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.       105 

the  eyeballs  of  the  fierce  Numidian  lion,  and 
with  joy  exclaimed,  "  Lord  I  am  wheat  to  be 
ground  for  thee!"  They  have  died  in  crack- 
ling flames  with  songs  of  triumph  and  glory  on 
their  lips! 

Lecky  further  testifies  that  this  power  has 
acted  on  all  ages,  nations,  and  temperaments, 
and  has  ever  been  the  highest  incentive  to 
practical  virtue  known  to  the  world;  that  it 
has  marched  victorious  through  the  centuries 
of  trial  and  struggle,  and  that  the  Church  of 
Christ,  when  it  has  become  degenerate  and 
corrupt,  has  ever  shown  within  itself  the  power 
of  regeneration  and  new  Ifie. 

Only  thirty-three  years  did  this  obscure 
workingman  from  Nazareth  live.  His  active 
period  of  work  was  only  three  years,  and  yet 
these  three  years  are  the  pivot  on  which  turns 
the  history  and  destiny  of  the  world.  Reared 
in  proverty  and  obscurity,  with  no  rank  or 
title,  and  no  great  man  as  His  friend,  hated, 
driven  out  and  crucified  in  disgrace  by  His  peo- 
ple— and  yet  He  sways  the  world !  The  very 
calendar  of  time  is  His.     The  morning  of  crea- 


I06  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

tion  is  forgotten  in  the  joy  and  glory  of  the 
day  on  which  the  shepherds  heard  the  words, 
"  Peace  on  earth,  good-will  toward  men  I " 
Kings  baptize  their  children  in  His  name. 
Cathedrals,  poems  in  marble,  rise  to  His  honor 
and  glory,  while  He  receives  the  grateful  hom- 
age of  millions!  The  story  of  all  the  nations, 
that  have  not  heard  His  voice  can  be  told  in  a 
footnote  on  a  single  page  of  history!  The 
nations  of  the  earth  are  His  inheritance !  How 
could  these  things  be  recorded  of  mere  man  ? 
The  only  natural  solution  is  the  supernatural 
■ — yea,  the  only  possible  solution  of  such  a  life 
must  be  the  supernatural. 

V.  Most  convincing  of  all — He  is  now,  to- 
day, the  living  Saviour  for  millions.  Eighteen 
centuries  have  passed  away.  All  personal 
mementoes  of  His  life  have  perished  long  since. 
His  birth  place.  Calvary,  and  the  sepulchre  we 
cannot  find,  and  yet  countless  hosts  to-day  ex- 
claim:  "Whom  having  not  seen  we  love!" 
He  is  the  unseen  presence  that  fills  and  thrills 
their  lives  with  faith,  hope,  and  love.  During 
one  of  Napoleon's  wars,  a  soldier  was  under 


MIR  A  CLES  A  ND  ROBER  T  ELSMERE.       1 07 

the  surgeon's  knife.  The  blade  was  cutting 
near  the  heart,  when  the  sufferer  looked  up 
and  said:  "  If  you  cut  a  little  deeper,  surgeon, 
you  will  find  the  Emperor!  "  There  are  scores 
of  men  and  women  before  me  now,  who  so 
love  Jesus,  that  if  you  should  cut  their  hearts 
out,  you  would  find  Him  there ! 

He  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  our  hiding 
place  in  time  of  trouble  and  distress.  Soc- 
rates, it  is  said,  had  a  dream.  He  dreamed, 
that  Plato  as  a  young  dove  took  refuge  in  his 
bosom  among  the  folds  of  his  tunic,  until  his 
wings  were  grown  and  feathers  all  full  fledged. 
And  then  he  rose,  and  soared  away  higher  and 
higher,  until  lost  in  the  azure  blue  of  heaven! 
This  dream  has  been  the  sweetest  reality  for 
those  who  have  loved  Christ.  Thousands  have 
sung  "Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,  let  me  to  Thy 
bosom  fly!"  In  His  bosom  they  have  nestled 
till  the  storms  of  life  have  passed,  and  then  on 
untiring  wings  have  mounted  to  purer  worlds 
on  high! 

As  they  have  rested  in  His  bosom,  they  have 
felt  the  caressing  touch  of  His  loving  hand, 


lo8  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

and  there  is  no  other  touch  like  it!  During 
the  Civil  War,  there  lay  in  one  of  the  hospitals 
a  young  soldier,  in  a  dangerous  condition.  In 
his  delirium  he  called  and  called  for  his 
mother.  She  was  summoned  by  telegraph. 
When  she  arrived  the  surgeon  in  charge  said 
to  her:  "You  cannot  go  in  now,  madam,  the 
shock  of  your  arrival  I  fear  would  be  immedi- 
ately fatal."  So  she  stood  at  the  doorway, 
watching  and  listening.  She  heard  him  groan, 
and  with  tears  begged  that  she  might  go  silently 
and  take  the  place  of  the  nurse  by  his  side, 
promising  not  to  speak  or  make  herself  known. 
She  went.  He  lay  with  his  face  to  the  wall. 
He  groaned  again  in  pain,  and  the  instincts  of 
the  loving  mother  overleaped  all  caution.  She 
bent  over  and  tenderly  placed  her  hand  on  his 
fevered  brow.  Instantly  he  exclaimed  with  a 
sigh:  "  Oh,  Nurse,  how  like  my  mother's  touch 
was  that!  "  We  know  Him  because  we  have 
felt  His  touch,  and  no  other  hand  is  like  His! 

What  think  ye  then  of  Christ  ?  He  is  the 
supreme  miracle  of  history.  He  authenticates 
Himself.     The  only  natural  and  possible  solu- 


MIRACLES  AND  ROBERT  ELSMERE.       109 

tion  of  His  life  and  personality  is  the  super- 
natural. You  cannot  separate  His  miracles 
from  his  personality,  they  are  a  part  of  Him, 
and  He  was  the  truth!  There  is,  it  seems  to 
me,  no  middle  ground.  He  was  either  a  gigan- 
tic fraud,  or  the  incarnation  of  truth.  You 
viust  crown  Him  or  crucify  Him!  His  witness 
to  miracles  stands  confirmed  by  His  personal 
testimony,  consistent,  a  unit,  and  based  on  a 
spotless  character,  and  by  the  mystery  of  His 
personality  (inexplicable  unless  divine)  in  its 
triumphant  march  through  the  centuries! 


no  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 


THE   MYSTERY   OF   PAIN. 

"  My  soul  is  weary  of  my  life.    .    .    .    I  will  say  unto  God, 
.   .   .   show  me  wherefore  thou  contendest  with  me  ? " — Job  x. 

I,  2. 

A  YEAR  or  two  ago  a  brutal  murder  was  com- 
mitted in  a  hotel  in  St.  Louis.  The  murderer 
fled  across  the  continent  and  put  the  Pacific 
Ocean  between  him  and  his  deed.  It  seems 
that  he  all  but  escaped.  He  thought  that  he 
had  escaped,  but  he  had  not.  The  strong  arm 
of  the  law  reached  across  the  sea  and  dragged 
him  back  to  justice — to  a  murderer's  cell  and 
a  murderer's  scaffold,  and  Maxwell  paid  with 
a  broken  neck  the  penalty  of  his  sin.  Sin  and 
suffering,  pain  as  penalty,  terms  so  often  linked 
together  in  human  history!  Law  violated, 
vengeance  and  penalty  follow  as  the  necessary 
sequence. 

That  is  a  simple  problem.  It  confronts  you 
upon  every  hand.    The  child  that  tries  to  play 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  HI 

with  the  blaze  of  fire,  soon  learns  that  it  will 
not  do.  Nature's  law  violated  always  strikes 
back,  be  that  law  physical  or  moral.  All  that 
is  necessary  for  a  man  to  fully  comprehend  the 
fact  is  to  simply  open  his  eyes,  and  if  he  has 
any  sense — certainly  if  he  exercise  reason,  he 
must  see  it — and  yet  how  many  do  not  see  it. 

Now  it  is  not  to  this  phase  of  suffering 
we  are  brought  by  our  study  of  Job;  but 
we  stand  before  the  man  of  integrity  who 
has  suffered.  And  the  book  of  Job,  that  tells 
this  story,  is  perhaps  the  most  unique  piece  of 
literature,  sacred  or  profane,  extant.  Where 
is  the  scene  founded  ?  Some  scholars  say  in 
Idumea ;  others  say  in  the  great  Arabian  Desert 
region,  and  still  others  fix  it  in  Mesopotamia. 
It  has  ho  place.  It  was  written  for  all  places. 
When  did  Job  live  ?  What  is  the  date  of  this 
book  ?  Some  say  long  before  Abraham. 
Others  maintain  that  it  was  after  Abraham, 
and  some  say  it  was  written  by  an  inspired 
poet  in  Solomon's  day.  It  has  no  time— no 
date — it  was  written  peculiarly  for  all  times. 
Who  wrote  it  ?     One  says  Job  wrote  it,  another 


112  LI  VING  PROBLEMS. 

says,  Elihu  was  its  author,  and  others  say 
Moses,  and  some  a  poet  of  later  years.  It  has 
no  author  save  God,  so  far  as  human  knowl- 
edge extends.  No  place,  its  locality  the  world  ; 
no  date,  its  time,  all  times;  its  author,  God! 
It  stands  forth  in  the  dim  twilight  of  human 
history,  the  dramatic  revelation  of  the  scene 
wherein  God  meets  the  creature  and  begins  to 
instruct  him  in  the  first  letters  of  the  alphabet 
of  life.  The  problem  that  confronted  Job  as 
he  thus  staggered  beneath  the  providence  of 
God  is  the  problem  before  us. 

What  is,  then,  this  higher  mission  of  pain  ? 

Passing  by  the  innumerable  inferences  and 
lessons  that  have  been  drawn  and  truthfully 
drawn  from  the  teachings  of  this  book,  we  ob- 
serve in  perfect  outline  three  answers  to  this 
vital  question  Job  would  ask  of  God.  As  the 
curtain  rises  and  falls,  and  scene  succeeds 
scene  in  rapid  succession,  we  see  the  old  pa- 
triarch beivildered,  enlightened,  and  croivncd. 
Or  to  slightly  change  the  figure,  we  see  him 
broken  up,  emptied,  and  then  filled.  We  take 
it,  therefore,  that  it  must  have  been  the  pur- 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  1 13 

pose  of  God  to  thus  bewilder,  enlighten  and 
crown,  to  thus  break,  empty,  and  fill. 

I.  We  see  him  first  bewildered.  All  his  con- 
ceptions of  life  utterly  broken — a  complete 
wreck.  Job's  position  had  been  one  eminently 
satisfactory  to  himself.  We  see  the  picture 
of  an  ideal  Eastern  home.  He  had  been  a 
model  man  in  many  respects,  upright  and 
honorable,  industrious  and  wise,  and  because 
of  this  had  accumulated  a  vast  fortune.  We 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  well 
satisfied  with  himself  and  began  to  feel  that 
he  had  about  mastered  most  of  the  ultimate 
secrets  of  life.  He  had  reached  the  period  of 
self-congratulation  and  satisfaction.  His  sons 
and  daughters  held  their  feasts  in  celebration 
of  their  prosperity  every  night,  and  over  the 
revelry  of  each  feast  the  old  patriarch  threw 
the  mantle  of  a  father's  prayers. 

But  in  the  midst  of  these  days  of  piety  and 
prosperity,  Job  is  suddenly  stricken  by  a  storm 
of  adversity.  In  a  single  day  all  his  property 
is  swept  away  and  his  children  killed.  He 
still  holds  fast  to  his  old  faith,  and  comforts 


1 1 4  LIVING  PR OBLEMS. 

himself  with  the  grim  philosophy:  "Naked 
came  I  out  of  my  mother's  womb,  and  naked 
shall  I  return  thither:  the  Lord  gave  and  the 
Lord  hath  taken  away:  blessed  be  the  name  of 
the  Lord."  But  adversity  touched  him  again. 
This  time  his  body  was  prostrated,  each  nerve 
torn  open  and  made  the  pathway  on  which  the 
scorching  feet  of  pain  travelled  to  his  inmost 
soul,  and  at  last,  all  his  old  conceptions  of  life 
are  utterly  wrecked.  In  anguish  he  curses  the 
day  he  was  born  and  prays  that  it  may  be 
blotted  from  the  calendar  of  time.  In  poverty 
and  sickness,  feeling  that  God  and  man  were 
against  him,  he  is  led  captive  to  despair. 

He  becomes  a  pessimist,  and  we  cannot  won- 
der that  he  does  with  the  light  he  had.  Viewed 
from  a  purely  human  point  of  view,  the  cap- 
tivity of  the  world  to  sorrow  is  overwhelming 
to  the  mind  of  man.  We  seem  to  be  captive 
to  blind  forces  of  unrelenting  cruelty. 

Nature  around  us  smiles,  threatens,  curses, 
and  commands,  but  never  weeps.  She  rises  in 
a  thousand  forms  of  beauty  and  sublimity  and 
receives  men's  homage,  but  never  stoops  to 


THE  MYST&kV  OP  PAIM.  1 15 

sympathize  with  a  sinning,  stumbling  child. 
She  knows  no  sympathy.  She  has  no  ear  for 
prayer,  no  heart  to  pity,  no  arm  to  save.  She 
acts  with  fearful  uniformity  through  laws  as 
stern  as  fate,  as  inexorable  as  death,  as  merci- 
less as  hell. 

The  terror-stricken  sailor  climbs  into  the 
rigging  of  his  doomed  ship  and  cries  in  vain 
for  mercy  to  the  wind  that  shrieks  in  demoniac 
glee  through  the  cordage  about  him.  The 
wind  does  not  care,  the  waves  do  not  hear. 

The  victim  who  trembles  in  the  grasp  of  an 
earthquake  need  not  pray  to  mother  earth, 
her  only  response  is  an  open  grave  that  yawns 
to  be  filled,  while  from  the  depths  of  her 
bowels  comes  the  roar  as  of  a  hungry,  mad- 
dened lion.  The  storm  king  in  remorseless 
fury  pauses  not  for  cry,  or  groan,  or  tear,  or 
prayer.  The  pestilence  at  whose  subtle  touch 
thousands  fall,  laughs  at  man's  calamity.  A 
single  frost  might  stay  the  bloody  work  and 
bind  again  the  blessed  seals  that  held  in  man- 
acles the  monster's  hands.  The  frost  does  not 
come.     No!     Mother's  hearts  lie  still!     More 


Il6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

lives  must  yet  be  drained!  And  for  many  a 
morning  still  the  rumble  of  that  dreaded  cart 
must  be  heard  as  at  early  dawn  its  driver  cries, 
"  Bring  out  your  dead !  Bring  out  your  dead  !  " 
Nature  does  not  care.  Over  all  the  bloody 
fields  of  our  Civil  War  Nature  never  shed  a 
tear.  The  grass  grows  only  the  richer  for  the 
blood  that  was  shed.  Nature  only  smiled  the 
brighter  from  the  nutriment  of  such  rare  food. 

The  sunlight  steals  through  the  window  of 
the  sick-room  and  lights  it,  but  falls  on  the 
dung-heap  with  just  as  glad  a  smile,  and  plays 
on  the  burnished  cofifin  lid  of  the  dead  with 
just  as  merry  a  twinkle.  The  sun  does  not 
care. 

The  water  slowly  rises  along  that  fatal  dam 
on  the  South  Fork,  higher,  higher,  higher,  add- 
ing every  inch  ton  on  ton  of  pressure  against 
man's  weak  masonry.  Not  one  jot  or  tittle  of 
her  rights  did  Nature  suspend.  Every  pound 
of  hydraulic  pressure  to  which  she  was  entitled 
she  remorselessly  demanded,  until  at  last  with 
millions  of  tons  gathered  in  her  arms  she  leaped 
upon  the  puny  structure,  crushed  it  like  a  toy, 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  TAIN.  II? 

and  with  the  roar  of  a  Niagara  plunged  down 
the  mountain  gorge  on  her  wild  mission  of 
death!  Shriek  and  groan  rend  the  air!  She 
does  not  heed,  but  lest  any  should  escape, 
lights  up  the  awful  scene  with  conflagration 
piled  upon  the  seething  flood.  No,  nature  did 
not  care! 

The  view  of  the  flight  of  woe  through  time 
is  even  more  fearful.  When  we  think  that 
half  the  human  race  die  in  infancy;  when  we 
remember  how  delicately  and  exquisitely  the 
human  heart  is  strung  to  love,  and  that  beside 
each  one  of  those  little  graves  two  hearts  have 
beat  in  anguish,  and  that  this  scene  is  repeated 
by  unnumbered  thousands  with  each  wave  of 
humanity  that  breaks  on  the  shores  of  time, 
the  thought  is  appalling!  We  hear  the  race 
through  all  the  ages  of  the  past,  marching, 
tramp!  tramp!  tramp!  to  the  music  of  sighs 
and  tears!  And  the  throb  of  that  mufifled 
music  is  overwhelming  to  the  soul! 

If  this  were  all  I  know  of  human  life,  I 
would  say  too,  with  Job,  Roll  up  the  accursed 
scroll,  seal  it  forever  and  hurl  it  into  oblivion! 


1 1 8  LI  VING  PROBLEMS. 

I  will  have  none  of  it !  But  the  heart  of  man 
has  ever  refused  to  be  content  with  such  a 
view,  and  in  this  bewilderment  of  despair  the 
soul  instinctively  cries  to  God  for  light.  So 
does  Job.  He  seeks  God's  face.  "  Oh,  that  I 
knew  where  I  might  find  Him,  that  I  might 
come  to  His  very  seat." 

n.  In  answer  to  this  cry  for  light,  God 
comes  to  enlighten.  The  process  of  enlighten- 
ment is  first  an  emptying  process.  Job  must 
be  emptied  of  self  and  self-importance  before 
there  is  room  for  God  to  come  in.  "  Who  is 
this  that  darkeneth  counsel  by  words  without 
knowledge  ?  "  says  God.  "  Where  wast  thou 
when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth?  Who 
determined  the  measure  thereof,  if  thou  know- 
est?  Or  who  stretched  the  line  upon  it?  Where- 
upon were  the  foundations  thereof  fastened? 
Or  who  laid  the  corner  stone  thereof:  when 
the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the 
sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ?  Or  who  shut 
up  the  sea  with  doors,  when  it  brake  forth,  as 
if  it  had  issued  out  of  the  womb;  when  I  made 
the  cloud  the  garment  thereof  and  thick  dark- 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  119 

ness  a  swaddling  band  for  it,  and  prescribed 
for  it  my  decree,  and  set  bars  and  doors,  and 
said,  Hitherto  shall  thou  come,  and  no  further; 
and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed  ?  " 
We  do  not  wonder  that  Job  must  exclaim  in 
answer,  "  Behold,  I  am  of  small  account ! " 
This  was  important  knowledge  for  the  patriarch 
— knowledge  in  which  he  had  hitherto  been 
sadly  deficient. 

God  now  reveals  to  him  a  new  meaning  to 
life,  and  puts  into  his  mouth  a  new  prayer  in 
harmony  with  that  new  view.  Job  had  been  a 
man  of  prayer;  but  of  family  prayer.  His 
horizon  was  limited  to  his  own  acres,  and 
broad  though  they  were,  his  world  was  a  very 
small  one,  and  his  prayer  a  weak  and  poor  one 
— a  prayer  of  about  the  import  of  our  old  man 
who  prayed,  "  Lord  bless  me  and  my  wafe,  my 
son  John  and  his  wife,  w^e  four  and  no  more. 
Amen !  "  So  Job  had  prayed  for  his  sons  and 
their  wives  and  his  daughters  and  sons-in-law. 
God  instructed  him  now  to  pray  for  his  friends, 
or  more  correctly  speaking,  his  tormentors. 
Thereupon  we  are  told,  "And  the  Lord  turned 


I20  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  captivity  of  Job  when  he  prayed  for  his 
friends."  The  world  was  larger  now  than  his 
own  plantation,  and  his  heart  and  life  were 
larger  because  they  saw  a  larger  world. 

There  sits  a  broken-hearted  mother  beside 
her  dead.  She  rocks  herself  to-and-fro,  and 
talks  about  the  little  bright-faced  girl  that  lies 
cold  in  death.  She  says  it  was  all  she  had. 
She  tells  how  the  little  thing  had  just  begun 
to  say  "  mamma  "  so  sweetly,  and  through  the 
big,  hot  tears  she  looks  up  and  says.  "Oh, 
what  have  I  done  that  God  should  punish  me 
so  ?  "  Nothing,  perhaps,  my  sister.  God  may 
not  be  punishing  you,  but  enlarging  your  heart, 
and  giving  to  life  a  deeper,  sweeter  meaning. 
Your  life  was  no  larger  than  that  cradle;  there 
was  but  one  child  in  the  world  for  you ;  but 
now  the  world  will  be  a  much  broader  one  and 
every  little  urchin  you  pass  on  the  street  cor- 
ner will  be  kin  to  you ! 

III.  We  next  see  Job  crowned.  "And  the 
Lord  turned  the  captivity  of  Job  when  he 
prayed  for  his  friends — AND  GAVE  HIM  TWICE 
AS    MUCH    AS    HE    HAD   BEFORE," — "fourteen 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  1 21 

thousand  sheep,  and  six  thousand  camels,  and 
a  thousand  yoke  of  oxen,  and  a  thousand  she- 
asses." 

Enlarged  capacity  is  necessary  to  enlarged 
wealth.  To  receive  a  blessing  there  must  be 
room.  Any  man  is  poor  who  lacks  the  capac- 
ity to  receive  wealth,  and  you  cannot  make  him 
rich  until  you  dig  him  out,  and  make  room  for 
it.  There  are  some  men  you  cannot  make  rich 
— they  have  no  place  to  put  it.  There  are 
many  poor  millionaires.  You  might  give  them 
the  wealth  of  Croesus — they  would  be  poor  still 
— and  they  would  live  a  mean,  and  narrow, 
cold  and  selfish  life.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick 
possessed  his  millions,  but  lived  the  life  of  a 
dog,  in  a  miserable  kennel  he  built,  in  which 
he  dwelt,  keeping  watch  day  and  night  over 
his  money  and  jewels.  Says  Jeffers:  "He 
keeps  his  diamonds  in  a  thick  wall,  his  bed  is 
placed  against  it,  that  no  burglar  may  break  in 
without  killing,  or  at  least  waking  him.  He 
has  but  one  window  in  his  bed  room,  and  the 
sash  is  of  stoutest  iron.  A  case  of  a  dozen  six 
barrelled    revolvers,    loaded,  lies    on   a   table 


122  LI  VING  PROBLEMS. 

within  reach  of  his  bed."  Could  any  one  be 
fool  enough  to  think  such  a  man  is  rich?  The 
nameless  cur  that  prowls  through  street  and 
highway  in  search  of  bread  is  richer  in  all  that 
makes  life  worth  the  having! 

Why  did  not  God  give  Job  this  great  num- 
ber of  sheep  and  camels  and  oxen  and  asses  in 
the  beginning?  He  certainly  had  plenty.  The 
Lord  was  not  short  of  oxen  or  asses.  He 
never  has  been —  doubtless  never  will  be.  Why 
then  did  He  not  give  them  to  Job  ?  Simply 
because  the  patriarch  had  no  capacity  to  re- 
ceive so  much  wealth.  He  was  too  small  a 
man.  It  was  necessary  for  God  to  take  the 
pick-axe  of  sorrow  and  dig  out  his  heart!  And 
when  this  was  done,  He  poured  in  the  greater 
blessing.  We  truly  say  that  there  is  no  full 
man  who  had  not  tasted  sorrow's  cup,  for  he 
who  has  known  no  sorrow  is  apt  to  be  filled 
with  the  consciousness  of  his  own  good  for- 
tune and  to  have  little  room  for  anything  else. 

"  Most  wretched  men  are  cradled  into  poetry  by  wrong, 
They  learn  in  suffering,  what  they  teach  in  song." 

So   does  God  enlarge  the  capacities  of  the 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAIN.  123 

individual  and  the  nation  sometimes.  I  love 
to  think  that  God  is  thus  to  bless  my  own  fair 
South-land.  Out  of  the  sorrow  and  anguish 
of  the  sad  past,  out  of  its  darkness  and  gloom, 
out  of  its  wreck  and  ruin,  there  is  rising  to-day 
a  South  richer  and  fairer  than  even  the  dream 
of  the  old !  So  that  in  tears  of  joy  I  can  ex- 
claim with  Father  Ryan : 

"Yes,  give  me  the  land  of  the  wreck  and  the  tomb. 
There's  a  grandeur  in  graves,  there's  a  glory  in  gloom; 
For  out  of  the  gloom  future  brightness  is  born. 
As  after  the  darkness  looms  the  sunrise  of  morn!  " 

We  see  the  light  of  a  life  apparently  go  out 
in  the  darkness  of  the  night  of  sorrow,  but  on 
the  morrow  rise  again  brighter  for  every  tear 
that  has  been  shed.  The  shrub  cut  to  the  very 
root,  will  still  put  forth  a  fresher,  rarer  shoot 
on  which  will  blossom  flowers  of  sweeter  per- 
fume than  the  old.  Even  the  Master  was 
made  "  perfect  through  suffering  "  we  are  told, 
and  so  we  can  truly  sing  "  In  the  cross  of  Christ 
we  glory!  " 

So  we  must  conclude  that  chance  and  acci- 
dent do  not  rule  the  world,  though  a  class  of 


124  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

professed  thinkers  used  to  maintain  that  chance 
was  the  author  of  the  world  and  its  sole  despot. 
But  when  people  examined  that  philosophy 
they  found  that  it  would  be  hard  to  run  any 
sort  of  a  world  on  that  principle.  Because  if 
chance  rules,  the  sun  may  rise  to-morrow 
morning  or  it  may,  not — altogether  owing  to 
whether  it  does  or  not.  If  a  man  jumps  across 
the  gutter  he  may  land  on  the  other  side  or  he 
may  go  spinning  and  plunging  through  space  till 
he  strikes  the  moon.  Horses  may  be  born 
with  one  leg,  or  two  legs,  or  maybe  three,  or 
possibly  four.  When  this  was  all  exploded, 
these  same  men  began  to  cut  somersaults  over 
the  eternal  fixedness  of  nature,  her  unchang- 
ing laws — maintaining  that  everything  outside 
of  this  is  mere  chance,  that  the  good  suffer 
and  the  evil  likewise.  But  we  learn  here  that 
God  is  looking  on  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end.  Every  motion  made  by  Job  is  seen  of 
God.  Every  breath  that  he  breathes  is  noted, 
every  word  that  he  speaks  heard.  God  walks 
near  him,  watches  and  listens,  and  at  the  proper 
time  speaks  His  message. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  PAW.  125 

We  ought,  therefore,  to  be  better  able  to 
endure  pain,  knowing  that  God  walks  by  our 
side.  A  surgeon  had  a  dangerous  operation 
to  perform  upon  a  child.  He  told  the  father: 
"  I  cannot  perform  the  operation  unless  that 
boy's  whole  soul  shall  brace  him  up  through  it. 
You  must  explain  it  to  him  and  get  his  full 
and  free  consent  or  he  will  die  under  the  op- 
eration. The  father  went  in  and  as  best  he 
could  told  the  child  and  asked  if  he  could  en- 
dure it.  With  blanched  face  and  trembling 
lips  the  little  fellow  looked  up  and  replied : 
"  Yes,  Father,  I  can,  if  you  will  stand  by  me 
and  hold  my  hand."  And  he  did.  And  as 
the  glittering  steel,  with  caustic,  sicking  touch 
severed  nerve,  muscle,  sinew,  and  flesh  the 
brave  little  heart  never  faltered.  So  should 
you  remember  that  a  loving  Father  holds  your 
hand  in  the  darkest  hour  of  woe,  and  that 
strength  and  health  come  out  of  the  pain  of 
that  operation. 

We  learn,  too,  that  God  never  strikes  a 
child  in  anger,  but  always  in  love,  and  through 
the  pain  leads  up  to  higher  good.     Such  indeed 


126  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

is  the  universal  symbolism  of  pain  as  expressed 
in  various  forms  of  the  thought  of  the  world, 
and  in  the  work  of  nature,  for  through  the 
agonies  of  maternity  life  is  ushered  into  the 
world.  When  a  common  man  is  to  be  elevated 
to  the  dignity  of  knighthood,  he  receives  three 
heavy  strokes  of  the  sword.  Such  is  the 
thought  that  is  interwoven  in  the  rites,  cere- 
monies, and  initiatory  observances  of  your 
various  lodges,  fraternities,  and  secret  societies. 
This  great  truth  is  a  real  part  of  the  higher 
and  purer  thought  of  the  world  to-day. 

As  I  said  in  the  beginning,  I  speak  of  the 
pain  that  falls  upon  the  good  as  thus  being 
educational.  God  does  hate  sin  and  does  pun- 
ish it  here  and  hereafter  by  merciless  pain. 
But  I  need  not  dwell  upon  this — you  see  it 
everywhere.  Look  into  the  judgment  halls  of 
sin,  where  God,  man,  and  nature  pronounce 
sentence  upon  the  sinner.  "  Lazar-houses  reek- 
ing with  putrefaction  and  death,  hospitals  and 
asylums  swarming  with  maniacs,  whose  cells 
echo  with  sigh,  and  shriek,  and  groan — dun- 
geons, cages,  and  grated  cells  where  guilt  rots 


THE  MYSTEkY  OF  PAIN.  I2f 

and  raves,  these,  all  these,  and  more,  are  but  the 
feeble  echoes  of  the  truth  '  Sin  reigns  unto 
Death!'" 

But  we  have  here  the  higher  mission  of 
pain.  It  is  hard  to  understand  it  all  some- 
times—there is  din  and  roar  and  confusion  as 
we  look  about  us,  but  we  know  that  harmony 
is  the  great  end.  If  you  should  go  down  town 
into  one  of  the  organ  factories,  you  would  hear 
the  grating  of  ponderous  machinery,  the  din 
and  crash  and  roar  of  hammer  and  plane  and 
saw,  as  out  of  the  rude  wood  and  steel  and 
brass  were  being  wrought  the  various  pieces  of 
the  instrument.  And  after  we  think  every 
thing  is  finished,  there  is  still  no  music.  Mr. 
Beecher,  in  describing  the  placing  of  the  organ 
in  Plymouth  Church,  says  that  when  in  its 
place,  and  you  saw  that  every  piece  had  b-een 
skilfully  and  carefully  adjusted  there  was  still 
no  music,  though  every  part  was  perfectly 
made,  though  every  part  was  perfectly  fitted. 
But  the  master  of  music  comes  with  his  tuning 
instrument,  sounds  his  key-note  and  touches 
one  of  those  pipes  to  see  where  it  stands.     Off 


128  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

it  goes,  howling  and  shrieking  in  the  wrong 
direction,  but  he  brings  it  down,  down,  until  it 
rings  in  perfect  harmony  with  his  note.  He 
touches  another  and  that  one  goes  howling 
and  bellowing  off  at  right  angles  from  its  true 
course,  and  back  he  brings  that,  until  it 
breathes  in  solemn  accord  with  the  other.  He 
touches  another  and  that  leaps  off  in  the  op- 
posite direction  screaming  and  shriekiag  in  wild 
discord,  and  back,  back,  back,  like  a  whipped 
child,  he  brings  it.  And  so  with  every  key. 
At  last  when  all  are  tuned,  and  magic  hands 
sweep  those  keys,  there  rises  and  swells  the 
volume  of  music — sweet  and  rich  and  clear  and 
full,  until  ceiling,  wall,  and  floor,  arch  and  cor- 
nice and  moulding  quiver  and  echo  with  its 
wondrous  melody!  So  does  God  sometimes 
educate  His  child  and  so  is  He  fashioning  the 
world.  Lord,  help  us,  though  with  aching 
hearts  and  tear-dimmed  eyes,  to  look  up 
through  the  tears  and  see  Thy  smiling  face ! 


PROGRESS.  129 


PROGRESS. 

"  One  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind, 
and  stretching  forward  to  the  things  which  are  before,  I  press 
on  toward  the  goal." — Phil,  iii.,  13. 

Of  all  the  Apostles,  Paul  attained  the  sub- 
Hmest  heights  of  Christian  life.  He  had 
greater  capacities  to  begin  with,  perhaps, 
and  he  bent  all  the  energies  of  his  great  soul 
to  the  end  to  which  he  had  consecrated  him- 
self. In  this  sentence  he  gives  us  the  key 
that  unlocks  the  secret  of  his  success.  He  was 
the  greatest  of  the  apostles,  and,  therefore,  this 
maxim  of  his  life  must  be  ever  rich  with  meaning 
to  the  true  believer.  He  counted  not  that  he 
had  ever  attained  perfection,  but  he  was  press- 
ing on  toward  the  goal.  Do  you  aspire  to 
noble  attainments  in  Christian  life?  Then 
this  inspired  record  will  be  pregnant  with 
meaning  for  you. 

I.    The  first   principle  enumerated   here  in 
9 


130  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

Paul's  maxim  of  progress,  is  found  in  the  first 
clause  of  the  text,  "  ONE  THING  I  DO." 

Concentration  of  purpose  is  absolutely  nec- 
essary to  success  here  or  anywhere.  The  man 
who  would  be  successful  in  the  races  laid  aside 
every  weight  that  might  beset  him,  and  gave 
every  energy  of  soul  and  body  to  the  race  on 
which  he  had  entered. 

The  jack-of-all-trades  is  good  at  none.  A 
man  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon.  A  man 
cannot  have  two  masters.  He  must  love  or 
hate  one  of  them.  We  cannot  carry  Christ  in 
one  hand,  and  the  w^orld,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil 
in  the  other.  The  man  who  tries  to  sit  down  in 
two  chairs  at  the  same  time,  sits  down  on  the 
floor.  The  man  who  gives  two  hours  a  week 
to  the  Lord,  and  six  days  and  twenty-two  hours 
to  the  service  of  the  world  or  the  devil,  need  not 
be  surprised  if  he  find  himself  growing  worldly 
or  even  vicious.  Success  in  any  business  or 
walk  of  life  requires  singleness  of  purpose. 

The  men  who  succeed  are  men  of  one  idea. 
A  young  working  man  was  one  day  bathing  in 
the  river  Clyde.     His  eye  caught  the  view  of  a 


PJiOGRESS.  131 

beautiful  hill  overlooking  the  river  valley.  He 
thought  what  a  grand  thing  it  would  be  to 
have  a  home  on  that  hill.  He  determined 
then  and  there  to  make  that  the  one  aim  of  his 
life.  He  did,  and  pressed  eagerly  forward  in 
the  race  with  his  eye  fixed  on  the  goal.  A 
magnificent  residence  now  crowns  that  hill  and 
overlooks  the  beautiful  valley.  The  owner  of 
the  Clyde  steamship  line  is  the  master  of  that 
mansion,  the  young  working  man  of  years  ago. 
A  poor  German  boy  once  read  of  the  siege  of 
Troy,  and  determined  to  find  the  ruins  of  that 
ancient  city  that  had  perished  3,000  years  ago. 
Through  poverty  and  slavish  toil  he  never  for- 
got his  vow.  He  procured  books  and  learned 
seven  languages.  He  became  a  merchant  and 
made  a  fortune,  and  at  last  started  eastward 
on  his  expedition.  For  long,  long  years  he 
continued  the  search,  and  then  startled  the 
world  with  the  great  discovery.  From  the 
palace  of  the  Trojan  King,  he  brought  trea- 
sures of  gold,  silver,  and  bronze,  that  had  lain 
covered  with  sand  for  3,000  years,  and  exhib- 
ited  them   to    Europe.      Scholars   of   all   the 


132  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

world  are  debtors  to  Dr.  Schliemann.  Single- 
ness of  purpose  was  the  secret  of  success.  A 
fixed  purpose  we  must  have  to  master  the 
ebbing  and  flowing  tides  of  human  life. 

II.  Oblivion  of  the  past  is  the  second  princi- 
ple of  this  maxim.  "  FORGETTING  THE  THINGS 
THAT  ARE  BEHIND."  The  racer  who  is  striv- 
ing for  the  mastery  cannot  afford  to  look  back 
over  his  shoulder.  He  must  leave  the  past 
behind.  i.  Past  blessings  and  achievements 
must  be  left.  Paul's  career  had  been  a  mar- 
vellous one — full  of  great  achievements.  He 
might  with  pardonable  pride  have  contented 
himself  with  what  he  had  done,  and  laid  claim 
to  the  crown  of  sanctified  perfection.  Well 
might  he  have  paused  at  this  period  of  his  life 
and  reviewed  the  past.  Doubtless  the  vision 
of  the  past  did  rise  before  him— the  prisons 
through  which  he  had  gone,  the  uproar  at 
Ephesus,  the  earthquake  at  Philippi,  violence 
at  Jerusalem,  trials  with  the  churches,  chains 
at  Cjesarea,  shipwrecks,  and  stripes, — while  be- 
fore him  passed  the  forms  of  Gallio,  Felix, 
Festus,  and  Agrippa — yet  he  does  not  sit  down 


PROGRESS.  133 

and  rake  up  the  still  glowing  embers  of  so  glo- 
rious a  past,  but  even  in  old  age  turns  his  face 
toward  the  light  of  the  future  for  strength  and 
inspiration.  Paul  knew  that  Christianity  is 
not  a  condition  of  passive  bliss,  but  a  throb- 
bing life,  and  that  self-satisfaction  is  the  fore- 
runner of  stagnation  and  death. 

Congratulation  and  self-satisfaction  beget 
traditionalism,  and  traditionalism  begets  big- 
otry. The  Pharisees  were  once  the  aggressive 
reformers  of  their  age,  but  satisfied  with  their 
achievements  they  drifted  into  traditionalism 
and  then  into  a  bigotry  that  could  imbue  its 
hands  in  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  without 
a  blush  or  a  tear.  Such  is  the  danger  of 
blindly  hugging  the  past.  Of  this  is  born  that 
conservatism  which  seeks  to  limit  the  horizon 
of  the  human  soul  within  the  bounds  of  per- 
sonal or  ancestral  experience,  and  has  ever 
been  one  of  the  mightiest  foes  with  which 
truth  has  been  called  to  contend.  It  was  so  in 
Christ's  day.  Tradition  was  the  most  con- 
stant, the  most  persistent,  the  most  dogged, 
the  most  utterly  devilish  opposition  the  Mas- 


134  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

ter  encountered.  It  openly  attacked  Him  on 
every  hand,  or  silently  repulsed  His  teachings. 
Even  the  Samaritan  woman  He  finds  armed 
with  the  ancestral  bludgeon.  "Art  thou  greater 
than  our  father,  Jacob  ?  "  "  Our  Fathers  wor- 
shipped in  this  mountain  !  "  It  was  this  spirit 
that  nailed  Him  to  the  cross  and  mocked  His 
anguish  on  Calvary's  dark  mount.  It  has  ever 
been  so  in  human  history.  Progress  has  al- 
ways been  made  by  a  life  and  death  and  strug- 
gle with  tradition  and  bigotry.  It  was  tradi- 
tion that  in  France  held  the  tiers  e'tat  by  the 
throat,  until  the  maddened  giant  in  a  fit  of 
frenzy  broke  the  grip  and  baptized  the  nation 
in  blood.  It  was  tradition  that  burned  Bruno, 
stretched  Galileo  on  the  rack,  danced  a  war 
dance  around  the  fires  of  a  thousand  martyrs, 
and  told  William  Gary,  the  apostle  of  modern 
missions,  to  sit  down. 

It  is  so  to-day.  The  traditional  ideas  that 
dominate  some  of  our  churches  form  the  great- 
est stumbling  blocks  in  the  way  of  aggressive 
Christianity.  Why  do  we  not  make  progress 
in  the  Lord's  work  as  we  should  ?     Not  be- 


PROGRESS.  135 

cause  of  ignorance — this  is  the  most  enHght- 
ened  age  the  world  ever  saw.  Not  because  of 
the  increasing  power  of  wickedness — the  world 
is  better  than  it  ever  was.  Not  because  of  ag- 
gressive infidelity — there  is  more  faith  to-day 
than  ever,  and  the  religion  of  Christ  is  just  as 
comforting,  just  as  sweet,  just  as  strong  as 
ever  for  the  human  heart.  What,  then,  is  the 
matter  ?  Evidently  there  is  a  failure  some- 
where to  adjust  ourselves  to  the  conditions 
and  necessities  of  the  life  about  us.  "  Can't 
we  do  this  ? "  cries  some  wide-awake  voice. 
"  Well,  hem !  we  never  have  done  anything 
like  that  here  !  "  says  Tradition.  That  settles 
it,  of  course!  What  never  has  been,  never  will 
be,  and  what  has  been,  will  ever  continue! 
How  many  churches  have  we  to-day  that  are 
thus  bed-ridden  with  ancestral  rheumatism ! 
The  dear  brethren  sit  down  within  the  solemn 
walls,  rake  up  the  ashes  of  a  once  successful 
past,  and  shiver  over  it  while  the  multitude 
without  rush  by  the  door,  unmindful  of  its  ex- 
istence, laughing,  joking,  sinning,  dying! 
2.  The  mistakes  and  sins  of  the  past  are  to 


136  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

be  left.  Our  mistakes  we  are  to  use,  but  not 
as  millstones  with  which  to  drown  ourselves. 
Napoleon  was  the  most  successful  general  who 
ever  lived.  It  is  said  that  he  made  more  mis- 
takes than  any  great  general  who  ever  lived. 
But  his  genius  consisted  in  the  rapidity  with 
which  he  retrieved  a  mistake,  and  the  certainty 
with  which  he  avoided  its  repetition.  The 
man  who  drops  a  glass  bottle  on  the  pavement 
would  be  considered  a  lunatic,  if  he  should  get 
down  in  the  dirt,  carefully  collect  the  broken 
pieces,  put  them  in  his  bosom,  and  hug  them 
there  until  the  jagged  points  should  pierce  and 
tear  his  flesh.  Yet  many  a  man  does  this  in 
life  every  day. 

You  have  sinned.  Yes,  I  know,  but  you 
should  not  stumble  over  these  sins,  Christian 
friend,  into  others.  God  says,  "  I  will  cover 
your  iniquity,"  "  I  will  blot  out  your  trans- 
gressions," *'  Go,  and  sin  no  more." 

Peter  sinned  most  grievously.  He  lied  out- 
rageously. He  cursed  and  swore,  and  publicly 
denied  the  best  friend  he  ever  knew,  his  Lord 
and  Master.     But  notice  Christ's  way  of  deal- 


PROGRESS.  137 

ing  with  this  sinner.  Meeting  the  poor  humil- 
iated disciple  after  the  resurrection,  not  a  sin- 
gle harsh  word  does  He  utter,  but  asking  three 
times  for  a  declaration  of  his  love — once  for 
each  denial — His  command  was,  "  Go  now  and 
feed  my  sheep."  Put  your  feet  upon  those 
sins,  and  more  humble  and  true  for  this  deep 
experience,  go  forth  to  teach  others!  And 
what  a  glorious  sermon  Peter  preached  after 
that  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ! 

Upon  the  other  hand,  Judas  sinned,  but  no 
more  grievously  than  Peter.  The  mistake  he 
made  was  that  he  did  not  return  to  the  injured 
Master  and  ask  for  pardon.  He  turned  and 
looked  in  upon  himself,  and  remorse  over- 
whelmed him.  There  could  have  been  no 
other  result.  Could  Judas  have  turned  his 
back  upon  his  sin,  and  his  face  toward  Calvary, 
and  ascending  that  hill  bowed  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross  and  cried,  "  Master,  forgive  !  "  we 
must  all  believe  that  He  who  said  to  the  thief 
by  His  side,  "  This  day  thou  shalt  be  with  me 
in  Paradise ;  "  that  He  who,  gazing  on  His  tor- 
mentors,   exclaimed,    "  Father    forgive    them, 


138  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

they  know  not  what  they  do !  "  would  have 
said  to  Judas,  "'Go,  child,  in  peace  and  tell  a 
sinful  world  of  my  love  for  sinners! " 

Paul  had  sinned  grievously  in  his  life.  He 
had  seen  Stephen  die,  consenting  to  his  death. 
He  had  kindled  the  fires  of  persecution 
throughout  the  land,  devasted  hundreds  of 
homes  and  made  a  thousand  hearts  ache. 
But  he  did  not  allow  his  dark  record  to  over- 
shadow his  life.  He  left  that  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross  and  pressed  forward. 

Shall  we  cower  at  the  ghost  of  consistency? 
Shall  the  sinner,  conscious  of  his  sin,  continue 
in  the  same  path,  because  overwhelmed  with 
that  consciousness  ?  I  have  sinned,  and  made 
many  a  sad  blunder  in  my  own  life — shall  I 
give  up  the  fight  ?  No!  But  putting  my  feet 
on  those  sins  I  shall  use  them  as  stepping 
stones  on  which  to  mount  to  a  higher,  purer 
life,  and  the  knowledge  of  those  dark  hours  I 
shall  use  as  a  club  with  which  to  beat  out  the 
brains  of  the  Devil  in  future  conflicts. 

HI.    "Stretching     forward     to     the 

THINGS    WHICH    ARE     BEFORE  "    is    the    third 


PROGRESS.  139 

principle  of  our  maxim.  This  is  one  of  the 
distinguishing  principles  of  Christianity.  A 
lonely  old  prisoner  is  Paul— life  all  behind 
him,  nothing  before  but  death  at  the  tyrant's 
hand.  The  world  sees  nothing  to  press  forward 
to,  yet  he  sees  the  invisible,  and  with  eager 
footstep  presses  forward  to  the  throb  of  un- 
heard music,  and  the  waving  of  unseen  ban- 
ners. Such  is  the  power  of  faith,  to  make  a 
desert  blossom  as  a  garden,  and  people  the 
darkness  of  a  dungeon  with  hosts  of  angels. 
So  is  the  Christian  thus  in  harmony  with  that 
higher  universal  language  of  creation— on- 
ward !  The  river  murmurs  it,  the  wind  sighs 
it,  the  stars  proclaim  it  in  the  tem.ple  of  the 
heavens.  Such  is  the  spirit  of  the  ages — the 
genius  of  the  universe.  These  are  the  foot- 
prints of  God,  who  walked  with  Enoch  and 
has  gone  on  before! 

It  is  not  only  the  privilege,  but  the  duty  of 
the  Christian,  then,  to  remember  in  the  present 
that  there  is  a  future,  and  fix  his  eye  upon  it. 
It  is  the  future,  after  all,  that  redeems  the 
present  fror«  contempt. 


140  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

I  love  to  pause  in  the  midst  of  the  din  and 
roar  of  sorrow,  that  comes  from  Nature's  great 
tread-mill  and  listen  to  the  music  of  a  future, 
whose  throbbing  harmony  will  not  be  broken 
by  shriek  or  groan,  or  sigh,  or  cry  of  despair! 
It  gives  me  nerve  to  fight  the  battle  of  to-day. 
I  look  around  me  and  see  wrong  triumphing 
over  right,  I  hear  the  cry  of  the  weak  and  the 
helpless  as  they  are  crushed  by  the  strong,  I 
walk  amid  the  thousands  who  crowd  our 
streets,  and  see  written  in  their  faces  in  great 
dark  lines,  sorrow  and  sin,  poverty  and  misery, 
wretchedness  and  woe,  while  they  jostle  and 
crowd  and  trample  each  other  to  death.  I 
love  to  think  that  the  future  holds  another  aee 
with  a  life  richer  and  purer,  an  age  of  peace 
and  of  righteousness. 

Last  summer  I  took  an  insurance  policy  to 
run  until  fifty  years  of  age.  The  date  of  its 
maturity  was  1914.  What  a  strange  date,  I 
thought.  What  marvellous  changes  will  be 
wrought  in  our  civilization  within  those 
twenty-five  years !  And  as  the  vision  of  that 
new  world  rose  before  me,  I  could    but    ex- 


PHOGRESS.  141 

claim,  "  O  God,  that  I  may  see  the  marvels 
of  Thy  salvation  here  wrought  out !  "  I  can 
endure  the  present  with  a  glimpse  of  a  sweeter 
future. 

There  are  days  in  our  individual  experiences 
when  we  are  to  remember  that  there  is  a 
future.  Sometimes  one  of  those  dark  days  will 
come,  when  the  darkness  of  hell  itself  seems 
to  settle  all  over  life,  and  devils  come  with 
grin  and  leer  to  pound  our  aching  bodies  into 
an  iron  casket !  Yes,  we  must  eagerly  press 
forward  then.  We  must  look  up  steadily  at 
the  clouds  and  by-and-by  as  they  drift  we  will 
see  a  star.  A  great  ship  was  crossing  the  sea 
and  had  been  in  clouds  and  darkness  continu- 
ously for  four  days.  The  captain  was  out  on 
deck  anxiously  watching  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
some  heavenly  body  from  which  to  take  his 
reckoning.  There  was  a  rift  in  the  cloud,  a 
star  gleamed  through  for  a  moment  and  then 
was  lost  again.  But  in  that  moment  his  quick 
eye  had  caught  the  bearing  registered  by  that 
beam  of  light  and  he  knew  just  where  he  was. 
He  was  lost  before — now  all  was  well.     The 


142  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

star  had  disappeared  behind  the  clouds,  but  he 
had  taken  his  bearings  and  asked  no  more. 
He  steered  with  unerring  accuracy  and  reached 
his  harbor.  So  in  the  darkest  night  if  we  look 
we  are  sure  to  see  the  gleam  of  a  star  that  will 
give  guidance  to  our  lives,  strength  and  assur- 
ance to  our  hearts. 

Let  nothing  crush  you,  then,  to-day — tune 
your  ear  to  music  unheard  by  common  ears. 
You  remember  the  Scotch  lassie  attached  to  a 
Highland  regiment  in  India,  who  languished 
on  a  bed  of  sickness  within  the  besieged  for- 
tress, where  all  were  ready  to  perish  from  hun- 
ger and  exhaustion.  She  was  weak  and  fever- 
ish, but  her  ear  was  keen  and  heart  hopeful. 
She  startled  them  all  on  one  gloomy  day  by 
rising  on  her  elbow  and  exclaiming:  "  I  hear 
'em — they're  a  coomin' !  "  "Hear  what,  my 
child  ?  "  they  said,  "  The  bagpipes  o'er  the 
hills — they're  a  coomin' — they're  a  coomin' !  " 
They  told  her  no,  that  she  was  feverish  and 
mistaken.  But  presently  some  one  thought 
they  heard,  and  then  at  last  they  all  heard  the 
music  echoing  o'er  the  distant  hills  and  then 


PROGRESS.  143 

the  banners  of  the  army  could  be  seen,  and 
salvation  was  at  hand.  Oh,  for  this  gift  that 
enables  us  to  see  the  invisible  and  to  hear  the 
inaudible! 

Friends,  is  your  purpose  in  life  fixed  and 
single  ?  Have  you  shaken  off  the  spell  of  the 
past  ? 

Are  you  pressing  forward  to  that  which  is 
before  ? 

Is  the  future  full  of  hope,  and  do  you  eagerly 
press  forward  to  it  ?  Or  do  you  approach  it 
cringing,  staggering,  driven  by  the  remorseless 
hand  of  time  ? 


144  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 


PLAYING  THE  FOOL,  OR  THE 
PROBLEM  OF  FOLLY. 

"  Behold  I  have  played  the  fool." — i  Sam.  26-21. 

How  to  keep  men  from  playing  the  fool  is  a 
problem  over  which  saints  and  sages  have 
thought  and  wept  in  all  ages.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  because  we  can  boast 
of  an  intellect  that  our  chief  staple  is  intellect. 
One  half  of  man  at  least  is  heart,  one-fourth 
at  least  fool,  and  in  the  remaining  fourth  intel- 
lect plays  a  part  of  more  or  less  prominence. 
This  large  streak  of  fool  runs  through  the  whole 
race,  has  been  running  since  the  days  of  Adam, 
and  will  doubtless  continue  yet  for  some  time. 

Diogenes  found  it  in  his  day.  It  is  said  this 
quaint  old  philosopher  was  once  earnestly  dis- 
coursing on  the  beauties  of  virtue,  and  one  by 
one  his  listeners  began  to  desert  him,  where- 
upon he  ceased  his  discourse  and  burst  forth 


PLAYING    THE  FOOL.  145 

into  a  ribald  song.  The  people  hastened  to 
return  and  soon  a  vast  throng  stood  listening 
with  open  mouths.  The  philosopher  turning 
upon  them  exclaimed :  "  Behold  the  assem- 
blage of  fools!  "  That  same  experience  might 
be  duplicated  to-day  on  a  much  larger  scale. 

There  are  various  degrees  of  folly,  from  the 
laughable  foible  to  the  highest  crime.  It  is 
not  of  the  innocent  foible  I  wish  to  speak  now. 
There  goes  the  mild  young  dude,  at  whom 
people  wink  and  smile  as  he  passes.  To  his 
mind  all  the  world  runs  to  a  centre,  like  the 
spokes  of  a  wagon  wheel,  and  he  is  that  centre. 
People  laugh,  but  then  he  is  young  and  will 
grow,  and  so  we  pass  such  folly  by. 

But  in  the  case  of  Saul  we  meet  with  a  dif- 
ferent species.  Saul  had  no  right  to  be  a  fool. 
Folly  in  him  was  no  longer  folly,  but  became 
crime.  He  was  the  Lord's  anointed.  He  had 
been  called  from  a  humble  sphere  to  wield  the 
sceptre  of  an  empire.  Upon  his  shoulders 
rested  the  burden  of  a  kingdom.  He  was  the 
chosen  leader  and  guide  of  hosts.     So  when 

we  see  him  plunging  into  a  career  of  domi- 
10 


146  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

neering  pride,  conceit,  and  sin,  there  can  be  no 
excuse  for  such  folly. 

Let  us  make  a  brief  study  of  Saul's  career. 
How  did  he  most  conspicuously  play  the 
fool? 

I.  He  made  a  fatal  overestimate  of  his  own 
strength.  The  first  great  victory  Saul  achieved 
seemed  to  have  turned  his  head.  Shortly  after 
he  was  called  to  be  king,  as  he  was  driving  his 
herd  home  from  the  field,  he  received  news 
that  the  Ammonites,  under  king  Nahash,  had 
laid  siege  to  Jabesh-gilead,  and  that  the  people 
were  in  dire  distress  and  implored  his  aid. 
Instantly  he  slew  a  yoke  of  oxen,  hewed  them 
in  pieces,  and  sent  this  bloody  war-token 
through  all  the  tribes.  Three  hundred  thou- 
sand of  Israel  and  thirty  thousand  of  Judah 
answered  the  summons,  and  assembling  at 
Bezek,  after  a  swift  night's  march  they  burst 
upon  the  Ammonites  in  the  early  morning  and 
defeated  them  with  enormous  loss. 

This  victory  rallied  the  nation  around  Saul  as 
one  man.  But  the  consequence  was  that  Saul 
became  puffed  up  with  the  idea  of  his  own  great- 


PLAYIXG   THE  FOOL.  147 

ness,  and  a  short  time  after  this  we  find  him  hid- 
ing among  the  caves  around  Gilgal  with  only  a 
handful  of  half-hearted  followers.  God  leaves 
him  to  himself,  for  He  cannot  use  a  man  who 
is  puffed  up  with  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
power.  Says  Paul,  "  when  I  am  weak  then  I 
am  strong,"  because  God's  "  strength  is  made 
perfect  in  weakness."  Conscious  weakness  is 
the  basis  of  the  mightiest  faith.  Conscious 
power  is  a  menace  to  all  faith.  Peter  seeing 
Christ  walk  upon  the  water,  walks  also.  But 
no  sooner  had  the  consciousness  of  this  power 
filled  his  soul  than  he  began  to  sink.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  Peter  as  he  began,  elated  at  his 
success,  exclaimed  in  heart,  "  Oh,  ye  weak  dis- 
ciples of  little  faith,  observe  me  now!"  He 
continued  to  sink  until  conscious  of  his  own 
weakness  he  cried,  "  Lord,  save  or  I  perish! " 

Conscious  weakness  is  the  frame  of  mind 
God  chooses  to  use  with  greatest  power.  The 
channels  are  all  empty  then,  and  nothing  in- 
terrupts the  flow  of  divine  force.  Peter  again 
conscious  of  his  strength  exclaims:  "Others 
may  leave  thee.  Master,  but  I  will  stand  true 


148  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

unto  death!  "  A  little  while  afterward  we  see 
him  in  the  court  cursing  and  swearing  and 
denying  that  he  ever  knew  Jesus.  But  after 
those  days  of  bitter  weeping,  in  deepest  humil- 
ity, he  hears  the  voice  of  Jesus,  uttering  no 
rebuke,  but  saying:  "Go  now  and  feed  my 
sheep,"  and  he  went  forth  clothed  in  another 
strength  than  his  own,  and  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost, he  preached  the  sermon  under  which 
three  thousand  were  converted. 

Knowledge  of  our  weakness  makes  the 
Father  above  bend  down  in  love  and  power. 
So  does  weakness  rule  strength.  There  sits 
upon  my  knee  at  evening  time  a  laughing, 
bright-eyed  boy.  He  is  utterly  weak  and  help- 
less so  far  as  taking  care  of  himself  is  con- 
cerned. He  does  not  help  me  to  make  a  liv- 
ing. He  has  always  been  a  care  and  expense. 
But  I  love  him,  and  the  very  weakness  of  his 
tiny  little  hand  rules  all  the  strength  of  my 
life!  So  do  men  rule  God.  The  cry  of  the 
weak  for  help  He  always  hears.  The  boasts  of 
the  strong  in  no  wise  appeal  to  His  omnipo- 
tence. 


PLAYING    THE  FOOL.  149 

Left  thus  to  himself  and  fighting  a  losing 
war,  Saul  refuses  to  genuinely  repent  of  his 
sins,  and  return  to  God's  ways.  He  plunges 
still  further  into  a  career  of  monumental  con- 
ceit that  ends  in  madness  and  suicide.  He 
thinks  he  can  circumvent  Providence.  He 
thinks  he  can  cheat  almighty  God.  Samuel, 
the  prophet  had  told  him  plainly  that  for  his 
sins  the  crown  should  pass  from  his  head  to 
a  stranger.  But  he  refused  to  take  this  mes- 
sage from  the  Lord  as  final.  He  set  himself 
about  to  remove  David  his  successor,  whom 
God  had  chosen  and  anointed.  He  mused 
after  this  fashion,  doubtless:  "  I  have  sinned,  I 
know,  but  I  am  not  a  common  man,  and  I  do 
not  propose  to  reap  the  consequences  of  that 
sin.  Men  ordinarily  do  so  reap,  but  I  will  not. 
I  am  a  king,  seated  on  the  throne,  a  giant  in 
physical  strength,  and  I  can  remove  this  pigmy 
who  dares  to  aspire  to  the  throne.  I  was  born 
under  a  lucky  star  and  I  shall  not  be  thus 
snuffed  out."  In  pursuit  of  this  fool's  resolve, 
on  two  occasions  his  life  is  spared  by  David, 
and  at  last  he  awakes  to  his  true  position,  and 


150  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

gives  utterance  to  the  words  of  the  text,  which 
form  a  fitting  epitaph  for  his  tomb. 

Alas,  the  world  to-day  is  full  of  such  fools — 
men  who  think  they  can  cheat  God ;  that  they 
can  sow  tares  and  reap  wheat ;  that  they 
can  sow  nightshade  and  reap  morning-glories. 
They  know  that  other  men  have  failed,  but 
then  they  are  cunning,  shrewd,  brilliant  fel- 
lows. They  were  born  under  lucky  stars. 
They  always  were  lucky.  And  so  they  think 
to  lead  a  double  life,  and  cheat  God  and  the 
world.  Outwardly  they  will  have  a  whitewash 
coat  of  morality,  but  deep  beneath  the  surface 
their  heart's  blood  will  circulate.  There  every 
nerve  shall  tingle  with  life's  sweetest  forbidden 
pleasures.  There  they  shall  really  live — a  life 
deep  and  capacious,  of  license  and  licentious- 
ness! The  pathway  of  human  life  is  literally 
strewn  with  the  skeletons  of  such  fools,  and 
still  the  myriad  hosts  rush  on  where  these  have 
fallen! 

See  the  devotees  of  lust  as  they  crowd  to 
that  door  around  whose  steps  bleach  the  bones 
of  thousands!     They   heed  it    not.     On  they 


PLAYING    THE  FOOL.  151 

go  to  a  fool's  grave,  while  thousands  more 
crowd  to  take  their  places.  The  crown  prince 
of  an  empire  in  our  own  time  tried  this  game 
of  double  play.  What  had  he  to  fear? 
Wealthy,  petted,  the  heir  to  a  throne;  and  yet 
this  man  died  the  other  day  in  shame  and  dis- 
grace, died  the  death  of  a  miserable  dog. 
Rudolph,  Crown  Prince  of  Austria,  was  his 
name.  I  do  not  marvel  that  Austria  mourns 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes!  Men  must  sow  what 
they  reap. 

The  man  who  begins  his  career  of  drink 
enters  the  broad  highway  on  either  side  of 
which  have  been  dumped  the  reeking  bodies 
of  the  dead  until  the  road  lies  twixt  two  moun- 
tains of  putrid  clay,  and  the  awful  stench 
breeds  pestilence  for  a  nation !  And  still  on 
they  go,  cursing,  crowding,  jostling  each  other 
for  precedence  in  the  lines  that  press  on  to 
death  and  hell ! 

There  goes  a  young  man  into  a  gambling 
den — food  for  sharks!  He  has  heard  of  the 
danger;  yes,  but  he  is  a  "  lucky  boy."  He  was 
born  when  the  signs  were  right,  he  says.     A 


152  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

young  fly  sails  around  the  room  and  sees  a 
spider's  web.  He  pauses  to  examine.  "  Why," 
says  he,  "  there  is  nothing  very  dangerous 
about  this!  There  seem  to  be  handsome, 
nicely-carpeted  apartments  in  there.  I  have 
heard  much  of  the  danger,  but  I  don't  see  it. 
I've  even  heard  an  old  green-bottle  fly  describe 
it  with  terror — but  my  opinion  is  that  he  was 
a  coward.  I  believe  I'll  go  in!"  He  goes  in. 
There  is  a  faint  little  buzz,  and  then  you  see 
his  legs  and  wings  pitched  out  the  door,  while 
the  spider  merely  picks  his  teeth,  crosses  his 
legs,  and  waits  for  the  next  fool. 

A  young  rabbit  hopped  into  a  garden  one 
day  in  which  a  nice  bed  of  cabbage  was  neatly 
inclosed  in  a  wire  net.  He  looked  at  the  cab- 
bage and  he  looked  at  the  net.  He  had  heard 
of  the  danger  of  traps  and  nets,  but  this  did 
not  look  dangerous — especially  when  he  caught 
sight  of  the  luscious  cabbage  within.  So  he 
slipped  inside  and  began  to  eat.  The  more  he 
ate  the  better  he  liked  it.  He  stayed  all  night. 
He  ate  cabbage  all  next  day,  and  smacked  his 
lips  and  wondered  what  a  dunce  he  had  been 


PLA  YING    THE  FOOL.  153 

not  to  have  eaten  cabbage  before.  He  stayed 
all  week— two  weeks— three  weeks— and  then 
thought  he  would  run  back  to  the  old  place 
and  see  how  things  looked.  But  when  he  went 
to  go  out  he  found  that  he  had  grown  to  be  a 
large-sized  rabbit  and  that  the  hole  he  came  in 
at  had  not  grown  any.  So  he  did  not  get  out. 
The  owner  of  the  garden  came  in  that  day, 
saw  him,  seized  him  by  the  neck,  took  him  to 
the  kitchen,  and  chopped  his  head  off. 

Such  is  the  end  of  a  fool. 

"  Be  not  deceived,  God  is  not  mocked," — lit- 
erally, you  cannot  turn  up  your  nose  at  God— 
"  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also 
reap." 

II.  The  folly  of  Saul  was  conspicuous  too  in 
the  fact  that  he  always  failed  in  the  proper 
exercise  of  foresight— he  seemed  to  use  only 
what  might  be  called  his  "  hind-sight."  The 
text  gives  a  fair  sample  of  his  conduct.  He 
says,  "  Behold,  I  have  played  the  fool  I  "  He 
never  seemed  to  be  able  to  grasp  the  idea  that 
he  was  about  to  play  the  fool  and  stop  in 
time.     His  philosophy  was   always  retrospec- 


154  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

tive.  It  is  said  that  there  is  a  race  of  people 
gifted  only  with  "  hind-sight,"  and  that  when 
they  want  to  go  forward  they  must  turn  around 
and  go  backward.  Saul  seems  to  have  been 
the  forerunner  of  this  race. 

What  a  sad  thing  it  is  that  men  can  be 
brought  to  see  their  folly  only  by  looking 
backward  after  some  tragic  exhibition  of  it. 
Such  are  the  men  who  put  off  repentance  to 
their  death  bed,  the  hour  most  utterly  unfit 
for  repentance,  of  all  the  hours  of  life  from  the 
m.oment  of  birth  to  the  expiring  gasp.  The 
saddest  sight  I  ever  saw  was  a  man  trying  to 
rejDent  on  a  death  bed !  I  pray  to  be  spared 
many  such  sights.  All  in  confusion — the  phy- 
sicians there,  the  loved  ones  weeping  in  terror, 
angels  and  devils  hovering  near,  eternal  life 
or  death  quivering  in  the  balance — oh !  infinite 
fool,  such  a  man  ! 

Such  is  the  man  who  neglects  his  pet  sin 
until  it  has  mastered  and  crushed  him.  It  is 
said  an  Englishman  once  took  a  young  tiger 
from  the  jungles  of  India  to  his  home  in  Lon- 
don and  raised  it  as  a  pet.     It  grew  rapidly, 


PLA  VING    THE   FOOL.  155 

and  the  big  brindle  thing  followed  him  about 
the  streets  to  the  terror  of  all  who  saw  him. 
People  remonstrated  with  him,  telling  him  of 
the  danger  to  himself  and  others.  He  replied, 
"  Oh,  there  is  no  danger,  I  have  raised  him 
from  a  little  cub.  He  has  never  tasted  blood, 
and  so  is  as  gentle  as  a  cat."  One  day  the 
master  fell  asleep  on  the  lounge  and  the  pet 
sat  by  licking  his  hand.  The  tongue  of  the 
tiger  is  like  the  teeth  of  a  file,  and  as  the  tongue 
passed  rapidly  over  the  hand  at  last  the  outer 
skin  was  broken,  and  then  each  stroke  came 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  blood  until  a  little 
blood-vessel  was  broken  and  a  few  drops  of 
blood  were  lapped  upon  the  tongue  of  the 
brute.  Instantly  all  the  fires  of  his  wild 
nature  were  kindled,  and  in  a  moment  the  pet 
was  transformed  into  the  wild  beast  of  the 
Indian  forest.  Leaping  back  and  crouching 
close  to  the  floor,  his  great  eyes  glowing  like 
balls  of  fire,  his  tail  waving  slowly  to  and  fro, 
he  prepared  to  spring  upon  the  throat  of  his 
victim.  At  this  moment,  strangely  enough,  the 
man   woke,   and    realizing   his   awful    danger, 


156  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

silently  drew  his  revolver  and  sent  a  bullet 
through  the  vitals  of  the  tiger.  He  barely 
escaped  with  his  life,  and  more  than  once  re- 
flected on  his  stupendous  folly.  So  do  men 
nurse  their  pet  sins  until  destroyed  by  them ! 
Saul  was  preeminent  in  such  folly.  He  never 
saw  a  hole  until  he  fell  in  it.  He  never  saw  a 
ditch  until  he  was  up  to  his  chin  in  it.  He 
never  saw  a  precipice  until  a  mangled  heap  at 
the  bottom  he  turned  to  see  from  whence  he 
had  fallen.  And  the  generation  of  Saul  is  not 
yet  extinct. 

Such  a  man  was  he  who  toiled  a  lifetime 
and  won  a  fortune,  and  putting  his  fortune  all 
into  an  enormous  diamond,  belted  it  about  his 
body  and  sailed  for  his  native  land.  On  board 
the  ship  he  exhibited  his  diamond  in  season 
and  out  of  season.  He  was  wont  to  amuse 
himself  by  tossing  it  high  up  in  the  air  and 
catching  it,  while  the  gaping  crowd  looked  on 
in  wonder  at  his  audacious  folly.  They  begged 
him  to  stop,  but  he  persisted  the  more.  He 
drew  near  the  ship's  edge  with  it  and  in  pure 
wantonness  tossed  it  up   there.     Higher   and 


PLAYWG    THE  POOL.  157 

higher  he  threw  it,  each  time  catching  it 
with  perfect  accuracy.  Higher  than  ever  he 
threw  it  and  caught  it.  Again  he  threw  it, 
when,  linxJi!  went  the  great  ship  to  one  side, 
and  down  into  the  depths  of  the  sea  like  a 
loosed  beam  of  light  darted  the  precious 
stone!  With  pale  cheeks  and  choking  heart 
back  from  the  bulwarks  the  fool  staggered 
a  miserable  pauper!  So  I  see  men  stand  on 
the  edge  of  a  precipice  and  in  pure  wanton- 
ness toss  up  their  immortal  soul,  gambling 
with  the  devil !  As  the  precious  treasure 
flashes  through  the  sunlight  of  God's  word,  its 
pure  quality  and  enormous  value  are  revealed. 
Dying  men  and  women,  why  should  you  be 
guilty  of  such  madness! 

Such  are  they  who  utter  those  sad  words, 
"  It  might  have  been  !  "  Such  are  they  who  ex- 
claim, "  O  God,  roll  back  thy  universe  and 
give  me  yesterday ! "  And  the  only  answer 
that  returns  is  the  sad  echo  of  their  own  wail- 
ing voice! 


15^  LIVING  PROBLEMS, 


WHAT   IS   LOVE? 

"  This  is  the  love  of  God,  that  we  keep  his  commandments." 
1  John, 5-3. 

The  grandest  conception  of  deity  ever  at- 
tained by  heathen  mind  perhaps  was  the  Phi- 
dian  Jupiter.  It  was  wrought  of  ivory  and 
gold,  a  carved  figure,  seated  upon  a  throne 
with  majestic  air,  holding  in  its  left  hand  a 
statue  of  victory  and  in  its  right  the  sceptre  of 
empire.  Says  a  great  preacher  in  describing  it : 
"  So  vast  was  this  extraordinary  work,  that 
sitting  in  the  chair  of  state,  it  towered  forty 
feet  in  height.  Into  no  other  figure  and  face 
had  art  ever  thrown  such  astonishing  majesty. 
Men  made  pilgrimages  to  see  it,  and  he  was 
counted  unfortunate  who  died  without  seeing 
the  Phidian  Jupiter.  And  when  on  festival 
days  the  priests  drew  back  the  purple  curtain, 
the  vast  statue,  white  as  snow  and  yellow  as 
gold,  shone  forth  with  such  amazing  lustre  that 


tVHAT  IS  LOVE?  159 

the  crowd  were  subdued  to  tears."  And  yet 
no  heart  throbbed  there.  No  light  flashed  in 
those  eyes.  Great  as  was  this  conception,  it 
was  far  below  the  Hebrew's  idea  of  God.  "  In 
no  carved  stone,  ivory  or  gold  did  he  ever  seek 
to  express  the  majesty  of  Jehovah.  The 
morning  light  was  but  the  golden  fringe  of  his 
garments.  His  slightest  look  they  called  the 
lightning.  His  lowest  tones  were  the  sonorous 
bolts  of  the  resounding  storms." 

Greater  still  than  all  these  conceptions,  is 
the  simple  declaration  of  the  New  Testament, 
"  God  is  love !  " 

And  yet  withm  the  scope  of  this  magnificent 
conception,  within  this  vast  empire  of  infinite 
love,  we  poor  mortals  somehow  lose  our  way 
at  times.  We  embrace  curious  definitions  of 
love,  especially  of  our  love  toward  God.  Re- 
joicing in  the  liberty  of  love  we  too  often 
bound  into  the  license  of  mere  sentimentalism. 
Let  us  listen  for  a  moment  to  John,  the  great 
apostle  of  love,  who  leaned  his  head  on  the 
Saviour's  breast  and  drew  the  veil  from  the 
secrets  of  his  inmost  heart.     We  live  in  an  era 


i6o  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

of  preaching  when  it  is  popular  to  exhalt 
love.  I  rejoice  in  that  fact.  But  let  us  be 
sure  we  understand  what  love  is. 

"  This  is  the  love  of  God,  that  we  keep  his 
commandments." 

I.  Love,  then,  is  no  mere  blissfulness  of  feel- 
ing.    It  is  oneness  of  will  with  the  beloved. 

Says  Christ,  "  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep 
my  words."  "  He  that  hath  my  command- 
ments and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth 
me."  Two  people  cannot  love  each  other 
whose  wills  clash.  The  conflict  of  will  pre- 
cludes the  beginnings  of  love,  and  will  destroy 
love  that  is  begun.  Two  people  whose  wills 
forever  clash  cannot  live  together  in  peace. 

But  love  not  only  agrees  with  the  expressed 
will  of  the  beloved,  that  is,  it  not  only  obeys 
the  commands,  but  runs  before,  and  hastens  to 
anticipate  the  desires  of  the  loved  one.  Says 
the  true  husband,  "  What  would  please  her; 
what  can  I  do  for  her  ;  what  can  I  give  her  that 
will  make  her  heart  beat  with  greatest  joy  ?  " 

II.  Obedience,  then,  is  the  sure  evidence  of 
love.     "  Hereby   do    we  know  that   we  know 


WHAT  IS  LOVE?  l6l 

him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments.  He  that 
saith  I  know  him,  and  keepeth  not  his  com- 
mandments, is  a  liar  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
him.  But  whoso  keepeth  his  word,  in  him 
verily  is  the  love  of  God  perfected;  hereby 
know  we,  that  we  are  in  him.  He  that  saith 
he  abideth  in  him  ought  also  to  walk  as  he 
walked." 

We  know  that  the  patriot  loves  his  country 
because  he  obeys  his  country's  call.  When 
the  bugle's  shrill  cry  called  him  to  do  and  die 
for  the  flag,  he  came,  and  when  the  comm.and 
was  given  to  charge,  he  walked  over  dead 
men's  bodies  and  on  into  the  very  jaws  of 
death.  The  man  who  says,  "  I  love  my  coun- 
try "  and  yet  refuses  to  obey  his  country's  call, 
lies. 

The  child  who  says,  "I  love  my  mother!" 
and  yet  with  a  wilful  toss  of  the  head  refuses 
to  obey  that  mother's  voice,  does  not  love. 
He  who  says  "  I  love  God,"  and  yet  refuses, 
or  neglects  to  obey  his  simplest  commands,  de- 
ceives himself.     He  does  not  know  what  love 

is.     Obedience  always  accompanies  and  is  the 
II 


1 62  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

evidence  of  love.  "  This  is  the  love  of  God 
that  we  keep  his  commandments." 

Do  you  love  Christ  ?  If  so,  two  commands 
you  will  hasten  to  obey — to  confess  that  love 
and  to  follow  Him.  "  Every  one,  therefore, 
who  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I 
confess  before  my  Father."  ''  With  the  heart 
man  believeth  unto  righteousness  and  with  the 
mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation."  If 
a  man  love  Christ  he  will  "  deny  himself,  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow."  There  are  some 
people  who  are  trying  to  squeeze  into  heaven 
doing  just  as  little  as  they  possibly  can.  They 
are  never  baptized  because  they  think  they 
can  squeeze  in  without  it.  "  The  thief  on  the 
cross  was  not  baptized,"  they  say.  They  are 
well  up  on  the  thief  on  the  cross  and  lug  in 
that  solitary  example  of  such  a  salvation  in 
season  and  out  of  season.  But  alas,  they  for- 
get that  he  was  a  dying  thief — they  are  living 
thieves.  He  stole  from  men — they  try  to  rob 
God,  and  the  difference  is  one  of  infinite  im- 
portance. 

The  law  of  agency  holds  the  agent  responsi- 


WHAT  IS  LOVE?  163 

ble  not  only  for  what  he  does,  but  also  for 
what  he  might  do.  So  does  God  who  has  in- 
trusted to  our  care  the  priceless  value  of  an 
immortal  soul.  He  holds  no  man  responsible 
for  that  which  is  impossible ;  He  holds  us  ac- 
countable only  for  what  we  can  do,  but  up  to 
the  full  measure  of  possibility. 

Let  no  one  deceive  himself.  Ecstatic  emo- 
tion is  not  religion.  We  must  not  lay  too 
much  stress  upon  "  feeling."  Feelings  are  un- 
reliable. Sad  indeed  must  be  the  Christian 
life  of  him  whose  faith  rises  and  falls  with  the 
fluctuations  of  his  feelings.  Mere  feeling  is 
affected  by  a  thousand  things,  that  have 
nought  to  do  with  true  religion.  The  weather 
may  be  the  cause  of  joyous  or  sad  feelings.  I 
heard  the  son  of  a  cobbler  in  my  native  village 
give  his  Christian  experience.  In  his  descrip- 
tion of  his  conversion  the  preacher  asked  him : 
"  Well,  Peter,  how  did  you  feel  ?  "  He  replied, 
"  I  felt  right  soft !  "  He  did  feel  a  little  soft, 
and  that  was  all  there  was  to  it.  He  did  not 
hold  out.  Religion  does  not  consist  in  "  feel- 
ing soft."     Obedience  is  the  evidence  of  love. 


1 64  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

Let  the  creed  crank  be  not  deceived.  He 
may  be  orthodox  and  yet  be  lost.  He  may 
hold  the  five  points  of  Calvinism  and  yet  go  to 
hell.  A  man  may  know  the  Bible  so  well  that 
he  could  thrust  a  pin  through  its  leaves  and 
tell  you  what  word  on  each  page  was  punc- 
tured by  it  and  yet  know  nothing  of  saving 
faith.  The  devils  believe.  It  is  not  what  a 
man  believes  or  knows  with  his  brain  that 
saves.  It  is  what  he  believes  with  his  heart. 
"  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteous- 
ness," "  Under  whose  preaching  were  you 
converted,"  was  asked  of  an  applicant  for 
baptism.  "  Under  nobody's  preaching,"  he 
replied.  "Under  my  mother's  practising!" 
No  questions  need  be  asked  about  the  genu- 
ineness of  her  religion. 

''  I  love  God  and  my  neighbor,  and  this  is  the 
fulfilment  of  all  the  law,"  says  a  man.  If  he 
does  love  God  with  all  his  soul  and  his  neigh- 
bor as  himself  he  surely  will  be  saved.  But 
he  must  not  forget  that  love  toward  God  im- 
plies implicit  obedience  to  His  commands. 
Have  these  commands  been  obeyed  ?     Has  he 


WHAT  IS  LOVE?  165 

accepted  Christ  ?  Is  he  walking  in  obedience 
to  His  commands  ?  If  not,  then  his  love  is  a 
mere  hollow  pretence.  "  This  is  the  love  of 
God,  that  we  keep  his  commandments." 
Pharnaces  while  still  a  rebel  sent  a  diadem  to 
Caesar.  Caesar,  declining,  sent  the  reply,  "  Your 
obedience  first,  and  then  your  gifts."  A  man 
in  open  rebellion  against  God  need  make  no 
pretensions  to  love. 

The  hypocrisy  of  the  man  who  cries,  ''  I  am 
a  philanthropist,  but  I'm  opposed  to  hospi- 
tals! "  is  only  too  patent. 

What  would  you  think  of  the  man  who  cries : 
"  I  love  my  country,  but  I  can't  give  any  of 
my  time  to  it,  and  cannot  afford  to  expose 
myself  for  the  flag— some  other  man  must  do 
that !  Whenever  there  is  a  love-feast,  count 
me  in,  but  if  there  is  a  fight,  I  have  an  engage- 
ment elsewhere."  Such  a  patriot  would  be  be- 
neath the  contempt  of  a  respectable  dog  who 
claimed  any  attachment  for  his  native  heath. 

Love  always,  then,  manifests  itself  in  oneness 
of  will  and  obedience.  Blissfulness  of  feeling, 
morbid   emotion,   and    extravagant    language, 


l66  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

may  be  the  effervescence  of  a  fervid  love,  but 
they  give  no  assurance  of  its  existence,  for 
they  can  flow  just  as  violently  from  a  weak 
sentimentalism.  The  case  of  Lord  Bulwer 
bears  witness  to  this.  His  so-called  love  let- 
ters to  Lady  Bulwer  attain  the  climax  of 
idiocy.  Thus  begins  and  ends  one  of  these 
letters:  "My  Dearest  and  Kindest  And  Most 
Bootiful  Poodle  :^Me  went  down  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  etc. 

"  Good-by,  my  darling,   my  angel,  my  life, 

my  Poodle, 

Oo  own  Puppy." 

Do  you  wonder  that  a  few  years  after  mar- 
riage that  man  was  found  rushing  upon  his 
wife  with  a  carving  knife  ?  As  he  sprang 
toward  her  with  the  drawn  blade  she  ex- 
claimed, "  For  God's  sake,  Edward,  take  care 
what  you  are  about !  "  Whereat  he  dropped 
the  knife,  and  with  the  ferocity  of  a  tiger 
sprang  upon  her  and  bit  a  hole  in  her  cheek. 

No,  love  is  not  mere  blissfulness  of  feeling. 
This  is  the  love  of  God  that  our  wills  be  one 
with  His,  that  we  keep  His  commandments. 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  167 


THE   TEMPERANCE   PROBLEM. 

Within  the  memory  of  a  generation  marvel- 
lous progress  has  been  made  in  temperance 
work.  The  moral  tone  of  the  community  has 
been  lifted  to  mountain  heights  as  compared 
with  the  status  of  forty  years  ago.  Scarcely 
longer  ago  than  that,  in  one  of  the  old  thirteen 
States,  at  a  social  gathering  of  Baptist  preach- 
ers, it  is  said  that  the  brethren  imbibed  so 
freely  that  it  was  impossible  to  close  the  even- 
ing's deliberation  with  prayer.  In  an  adjoin- 
ing State  about  the  same  time,  at  a  Methodist 
Conference,  a  resolution  was  introduced  to  the 
effect  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  conference 
that  a  minister  should  not  be  allowed  to  sell 
ardent  spirits.  The  resolution  was  voted  down 
by  an  overwhelming  majority.  What  a  con- 
trast with  the  present  attitude  of  these 
churches! 

In  view  of  the  progress  that  has  been  made, 


1 68  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

there  is  only  hope  and  inspiration  in  the  future. 
I  beHeve  that  twenty-five  years  from  to-day 
there  will  not  be  an  open  legalized  saloon  on 
American  soil  from  the  frozen  seas  of  Alaska 
to  the  orange  groves  of  Florida,  from  Maine 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  from  sea  to  sea! 

But  the  time  has  passed  for  mere  sentiment 
on  the  subject,  for  doggerel  poetry  and  lofty 
abstractions.  The  hour  demands  action — per- 
sistent, systematic,  remorseless,  aggressive, 
along  all  lines,  religions,  social,  and  legal.  For 
with  all  our  progress,  the  total  consumption 
of  alcoholic  liquors  has  yet  increased.  Be- 
tween the  forces  of  civilization  and  the  forces 
of  intemperance  there  is  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict. They  cannot  both  survive  the  struggle 
of  another  quarter  of  a  century.  One  must 
go  down. 

I.  The  hour  demands  action  along  religious 
lines.  The  temperance  movement  of  this  age 
is  a  religious  movement,  and  the  principles 
that  underlie  it  are  the  fundamental  principles 
of  Christianity.  Men  have  said  the  church 
has  nothing  to   do  with  this  question.     If  a 


THE    TEMPERAXCE  PROBLEM.  169 

giant  evil  can  grow  up  thus  in  our  midst,  slay- 
ing its  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  laying 
its  impious  hands  with  debauching  touch  on 
the  ballot  and  the  legislator,  hurling  defiance 
in  the  face  of  society  and  the  church,  crushing 
the  hearts  and  homes  of  the  weak  and  helpless, 
—if  the  church  has  nothing  to  do  with  all  this 
in  God's  name,  what  are  we  here  for  ? 

Every  church  should  be  in  itself  a  great 
temperance  organization,  whose  pastor  gives 
forth  no  uncertain  sound  on  the  subject.  This 
day  is  rapidly  approaching.  The  minister  of 
the  gospel  who  does  not  now  preach  temper- 
ance is  a  rare  bird,  and  he  is  getting  rarer. 
You  see  him  only  now  and  then.  You  see  him 
seated  on  the  bare  limb  of  some  dead  tree, 
chattering  about  the  good  old  times  of  the 
dark  ages.  He  will  soon  be  so  rare  that  you 
will  find  him  only  in  the  cage  of  a  dime  mu- 
seum.    God  speed  the  day ! 

There  are  still  a  few  good  brethren,  too, 
who  have  fallen  behind  the  procession,  because 
they  have  pinned  themselves  to  some  crotchet 
or  other,  and  out  of  pure  stubbornness,  or  fear 


lyo  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

of  inconsistency,  do  not  investigate  and  turn. 
It  may  be  a  little  embarrassing,  but,  brother, 
it  is  better  to  change  if  you  are  wrong.  To 
all  such  I  would  commend  for  study  the  sin- 
cerity of  Brother  Franks  of  North  Carolina. 
It  is  said  that  he  went  into  the  pulpit  of  his 
country  church  one  day,  and  in  the  midst  of 
his  services  discovered  that  he  had  put  on  his 
stockings  wrong  side  out.  He  at  once  paused, 
and  began  to  take  off  his  shoes  to  put  things 
right.     A  brother  sitting  by  said : 

"  Brother  Franks,  don't  pull  off  your  shoes 
here  before  the  congregation  !  " 

"  Yes,  I  will,"  replied  Brother  Franks ;"  when- 
ever I  find  that  I  am  wrong,  tJicn  and  there  I 
turn."  And  he  turned!  After  all,  if  vitally 
wrong,  is  it  not  better  to  turn,  even  if  it  is 
somewhat  embarrassing  ? 

II.  The  hour  demands  action  along  social 
lines.  The  temperance  movement  is  likewise 
a  lofty  social  movement.  In  our  intense  fight 
against  the  thing,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the 
principle  of  the  thing.  The  foundation  of  suc- 
cessful temperance  reform  is  educational.     It 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  17 1 

is  time  that  we  fixed  on  a  firm  basis  in  our 
social  relations,  the  truth  that  intemperance  is 
not  a  jolly  weakness,  or  a  phyiscal  disease,  but 
a  crime.  We  have  passed  the  period  of  apolo- 
getics, and  are  in  the  realm  of  eternal  axioms. 

Drunkenness  is  pronounced  a  crime  by  the 
law  of  God.  "  No  drunkard  shall  inherit  "  thun- 
ders His  Word!  It  is  pronounced  a  crime  by 
the  science  of  medicine.  Attempts  to  treat 
drunkenness  as  a  physical  disease  have  been 
conspicuous  only  as  failures. 

It  is  pronounced  a  crime  by  the  civil  law. 
Divorce  is  granted  for  this  cause  upon  the 
theory  of  criminality.  Drunkenness  cannot  be 
pleaded  in  a  court  of  justice  in  explanation  or 
extenuation  of  any  crime,  because  one  crime 
cannot  be  pleaded  in  justification  of  another. 
So  is  the  man  arrested  who  is  found  drunk 
upon  the  streets. 

This  law,  written  by  the  hand  of  God  and 
echoed  by  science  and  civil  law,  must  be  trans- 
lated into  our  social  vernacular.  Woman,  the 
reigning  sovereign  of  polite  society,  can  have 
much  to  do  with  this  work.     It  should  be  en- 


172  LIVING  PROBLEMS, 

forced  in  the  parlor  and  the  dining  room.  Es- 
pecially should  it  be  enforced  at  the  marriage 
altar.  Would  you  marry  a  criminal,  my  dear 
young  girl  ?  She  shudders  at  the  idea.  But 
if  a  man  who  gets  drunk  comes  along  and  is 
good  looking,  she  marries  him  to  reform  him! 
O  climax  of  idiocy!  Yes,  there  he  goes.  He 
was  kicked  out  of  a  dry-goods  store.  The 
proprietor  came  to  him  one  morning  after  a 
debauch,  and  said:  "  Young  man,  this  is  a  bus- 
iness establishment.  We  have  no  room  for 
such  cattle  as  you  here.  There  is  the  door!" 
He  was  employed  by  a  railroad  company,  but 
on  discovering  his  habits,  they  kicked  him  out 
there.  The  conductor  of  a  street  car  kicked 
him  off  and  would  not  let  him  ride.  Kicked 
out  of  business,  kicked  off  the  public  highway, 
kicked  out  everywhere — but  about  this  time 
some  girl  who  never  saw  him  before,  and  not 
akin  to  him,  opens  her  arms  and  says:  "  Come 
to  my  arms,  my  own  stricken  dear !  "  And  he 
comes!  He  always  comes.  He  has  been  wait- 
ing to  come  for  some  time.  In  the  ecstasies  of 
mere  moonshine  sentiment  she  exclaims:  "O 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  173 

darling,  I  could  live  with  you  on  bread  and 
water!"  And  he  chimes  in,  "me  too!" — but 
with  the  mental  reservation  that  if  she  can 
furnish  the  bread,  he  will  shufifle  around  and 
try  to  get  up  a  little  water!  Then  they  join 
hands  and  down,  down,  down  to  a  hell  of  pov- 
erty and  woe  side  by  side  they  go !  Oh,  the 
pity  of  it ! 

We  should  teach  the  young  to  shun  the  cup 
as  they  would  shun  arsenic  or  strychnine.  We 
should  teach  them  the  awful  danger  of  the 
drink  habit  and  the  drink  appetite.  But  it 
seems  to  me  care  should  be  taken  lest  we 
overdo  the  idea  of  appetite.  There  are  very 
few  people  who  acquire  an  appetite  from  one 
drink.  Appetite  is  not  the  result  of  the  first 
drink,  but  of  the  five  hundredth  rather.  It  is 
the  result  of  unrebuked  and  unpunished  per- 
sistence in  the  crime  of  intemperance.  We 
should  teach  a  lofty  contempt  for  drinkers  and 
drinking.  I  have  seen  young  men  who  made 
great  pretensions  to  the  ravages  of  an  insatiate 
appetite  for  alcohol,  who  simply  lied  in  such 
pretensions.      They   drink   as   an   excuse   for 


174  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

utter  worthlessness,  while  the  world  patheti- 
cally attributes  it  all  to  appetite.  Without 
hereditary  taint  the  human  stomach  will  never 
cry  for  the  infernal  stuff  until  you  first  soak 
and  rub  it  in  the  sewer. 

I  shall  never  forget  my  first  drink.  I  was 
sea  sick  for  the  first  time.  I  had  retired  to 
my  stateroom  and  was  wrestling  with  the 
enemy.  My  friend  with  a  remedy  called  and 
advised.  He  said  the  thing  to  do  was  to  go 
down  to  the  bar  and  get  a  cocktail.  At  first  I 
declined.  Finally,  I  decided  to  go.  With  as 
much  dignity  as  I  could  summon,  for  I  did 
not  want  to  appear  green,  I  walked  up  to  the 
bar  and  called  for  a  cocktail.  The  barkeeper 
stared  at  me  and  asked  :  "  Gin,  or  whiskey  ?  " 
This  was  a  problem  I  had  never  met  before,  I 
did  not  know  it  was  made  two  ways.  I  pon- 
dered. It  seemed  to  me  that  "  whiskey " 
sounded  very  raw  and  vigorous,  vulgar  and 
formidable,  while  "  gin "  sounded  short  and 
simple  and  upon  the  whole  struck  me  as  the 
much  milder  term.  I  told  him  to  make  it  gin. 
He  made  it  gin.     I  took  it.     I  do  not  remem- 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  175 

ber  everything  that  immediately  followed,  but 
as  I  look  back  now,  it  seemed  to  me  that  I 
had  swallowed  a  glass  of  red-hot  molten  cast 
iron.  And  when  it  struck  bottom  it  seemed 
to  crystallize  in  the  shape  of  a  steam  saw-mill 
with  a  circular  buzz  saw  making  a  thousand 
revolutions  a  minute!  I  did  my  best,  but  I 
could  not  hold  it  down  sixty  seconds !  I  have 
heard  of  people  eating  fish-hooks  and  axe- 
handles,  chewing  matches  and  scrap-iron ;  and 
as  for  me  you  may  give  me  fish-hooks  and  axe- 
handles  for  breakfast,  scrap  iron  for  dinner  and 
matches  for  supper, — but  I  draw  the  line  at 
gin!  If  my  physician  thinks  that  the  interior 
of  my  anatomy  needs  blasting  out,  let  him 
load  me  up  with  powder,  with  gun-cotton, 
with  dynamite — I  draw  the  line  at  gin!  A 
healthy  boy  will  never  convince  me  that  he 
starts  out  with  an  appetite  for  such  stuff ! 

III.  The  hour  demands  action  along  legal 
lines.  We  have  made  much  progress  in  tem- 
perance education,  but  the  drink  traffic  under 
the  fostering  influences  of  excise  laws  seems  to 
have  grown  in  power  for  evil  from  day  to  day. 


176  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

Here  we  find  progress  in  the  wrong  direction 
except  in  two  or  three  States,  where  the 
saloon  has  been  aboHshed. 

A  man  was  released  from  Sing  Sing  the 
other  day  who  had  been  confined  there  thirty- 
three  years.  The  progress  of  the  world  in 
those  years  is  a  constant  source  of  amazement 
to  him.  He  walks  the  streets  of  New  York,  a 
feeble  old  man  now,  and  can  scarcely  recog- 
nize the  great  metropolis  with  its  three  millions 
of  people  as  the  town  he  left  thirty-three  years 
ago.  Within  that  time,  the  nation  has  been 
baptized  in  blood,  and  millions  of  slaves  made 
freemen.  Kingdoms  have  risen  and  fallen. 
The  map  of  Europe  has  been  made  over  again. 
The  hum  of  a  thousand  new  industries,  and 
the  flash  of  the  electric  light  speak  of  a  new 
age  and  a  new  civilization.  In  one  thing  he 
found  no  improvement.  In  the  year  1855  in  a 
drunken  brawl  in  a  saloon  he  had  killed  a  man. 
With  a  shudder  of  horror  he  saw  the  same  red 
lights  of  the  saloon  throwing  their  hellish  glare 
acro€s   the   pathway  of   his  broken  life !     He 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  I77 

finds  it  even  more  difficult  now  than  in   1855 
to  get  beyond  the  range  of  the  saloon ! 

There  are  those  who  say  this  is  none  of  my 
business.  Well,  in  one  sense  it  is  not.  But  in 
another  it  is.  Coming  into  the  city  the  other 
day  from  the  seashore,  as  our  train  dashed  by 
a  village  crossing,  it  suddenly  gave  a  sharp 
lurch  and  quickly  came  to  a  halt.  In  a  mo- 
ment more  we  were  rapidly  backing  up  to  the 
station.  I  looked  out  and  saw  a  great  crowd 
gathering.  With  the  others  I  rushed  to  the 
spot  and  saw  on  the  stones  beside  the  track 
the  mangled  body  of  a  little  nine-year-old  girl. 
The  bloody  trunk  lay  upon  one  side  of  the 
rails  and  the  ghastly  head  upon  the  other. 
The  limbs  and  muscles  were  still  spasmodically 
moving  in  the  agonies  of  death.  In  a  moment 
or  two  our  whistle  sounded  and  we  were  again 
rattling  on  toward  the  city.  As  our  train 
pulled  out,  the  mother  came  upon  the  scene, 
and  above  all  other  sounds  rang  her  wild  cry 
of  despair!  I  heard  it  above  the  roar  and  rat- 
tle of  engine  and  cars  and  I  can  hear  it  yet! 

It  was  strictly  none  of  my  business.     It  was 
12 


178  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

not  my  child.  But  it  was  my  privilege  to 
weep !  I  had  the  right  to  look  away  out  the 
window  at  the  leaden  sky  and  with  that  broken- 
hearted mother  to  cry!  Yes,  in  a  higher  sense 
it  was  my  business.  The  cry  of  suffering 
humanity  is  always  the  trumpet  call  of  God! 
If  we  love  God  and  our  fellow-men  we  must 
respond  to  that  call.  And  I  shall  ever  con- 
sider it  my  duty  to  use  my  influence  to  abol- 
ish grade-crossings,  remembering  that  bloody 
scene. 

I  am  told  that  the  remedy  I  must  apply  is 
moral  suasion.  I  believe  in  moral  suasion,  but 
I  believe  in  the  exercise  of  common  sense  as 
to  when  it  should  be  applied.  A  man  passing 
a  jungle  is  attacked  by  a  ferocious  tiger.  His 
arm  is  being  crushed  between  the  jaws  of  the 
brute.  Nerve  and  muscle  and  artery  and  bone 
are  being  ground  between  those  teeth  as  he 
drinks  the  rich  life  blood.  What  must  the 
traveller  do  now  ?  Use  moral  suasion  on  the 
beast  ?  Must  he  stroke  him  gently  on  the 
head  with  his  disengaged  hand  and  say  in 
soothing   tones,  "  Come,  let    me    reason   with 


THE    TEMPERA A^CE  PROBLEM.  1)9 

you,  tiger;  I  appeal  to  your  judgment,  that  it 
is  unfair  and  unkind  and  wrong  for  you  to 
chew  my  arm  in  that  style!"  Should  he  do 
this  ?  And  at  the  same  time  should  his  fellow- 
traveller  who  stands  by,  draw  near  and  use  all 
his  powers  of  persuasion  to  convince  his 
stricken  friend  that  it  is  altogether  unseemly 
to  allow  himself  to  be  eaten  up  in  such  a  man- 
ner ?     Is  this  what  we  mean  by  moral  suasion  ? 

In  our  present  situation  we  have  need  of 
another  method  first.  The  stricken  traveller 
draws  his  knife  and  plunges  it  to  the  hilt  into 
the  body  of  the  brute  that  attacks  him,  and 
this  prepares  the  way  for  the  application  of 
gentler  methods  later.  So  we  need  legal  sua- 
sion first,  to  be  supplemented  by  moral  sua- 
sion. 

The  open  saloon  I  challenge  as  a  wild  beast, 
that  still  prowls  with  blood-stained  claws  and 
teeth  along  the  highways  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  has  no  mission  save  to  murder  and 
destroy  that  which  is  good,  true,  and  beautiful 
in  our  life. 

I  arraign  and  indict  the  open  saloon  before 


l8o  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  court  of  public  conscience,  in  the  name  of 
God  and  humanity,  as  the  arch  fiend  and 
chronic  criminal  of  modern  civilization.  In 
my  bill  of  indictment  there  are  five  counts 
against  the  accused,  either  one  of  which  is  suf- 
ficient to  condemn  him  to  penal  servitude  in  a 
warmer  climate  than  this  forever. 

First — The  open  saloon  is  the  manufacturer 
of  criminals,  and  therefore  cannot  be  legal- 
ized, save  by  an  act  of  suicide  on  the  part  of 
the  state.  Drunkenness  is  a  crime.  If  a 
policeman  finds  a  man  on  the  street,  whose 
breath  is  loud  and  knees  weak,  does  he  rub 
him  with  St.  Jacob's  Oil  for  rheumatism  ?  No, 
he  whacks  him  over  the  head  with  a  billy, 
thrusts  him  into  a  cart  and  dumps  him  into 
the  station  house  for  a  season  of  rest.  Is  it 
right  for  the  state  to  punish  the  drunkard,  and 
at  the  same  time  offer  a  premium  to  those 
who  make  him  drunk  and  kick  him  out  into 
the  street  to  stagger  and  mutter  and  carica- 
ture a  man  till  arrested  ? 

A  short  time  ago  it  was  declared  by  one  of 
our  daily  papers   that   Police   Justice  Welde 


THE    TEMPERAXCE  PROBLEM.  iSl 

was  also  the  owner  of  a  saloon.  The  press 
went  into  hysterics  over  the  announcement. 
How  outrageous,  that  a  man  should  make  his 
fellow  drunk  at  night,  pocket  the  proceeds,  and 
in  the  morning  sentence  him  to  the  Island  for 
getting  drunk  over  his  bar  to  which  he  had 
been  lured!  Truly  such  would  be  a  most 
scandalous  situation.  But  strange  it  is,  that 
it  does  not  occur  to  people  that  this  is  pre- 
cisely the  case  with  the  whole  license  system. 
Police  Justice  Welde  does  not  sit  on  the  judge's 
bench  as  an  individual.  He  is  the  representa- 
tive of  the  sovereign  State  of  New  York.  His 
individuality  has  nothing  to  do  with  his  judi- 
cial duties.  He  is  not  known  as  an  individual, 
nor  is  he  allowed  to  know  individuals  in  his 
ofificial  duties.  He  simply  represents  the  State. 
Likewise  the  saloon-keeper  on  the  corner  does 
not  sell  as  an  individual.  He  is  the  represen- 
tative of  the  State,  and  can  only  sell  when  he 
shows  his  commission — delegating  from  the 
State  the  authority  to  ofificially  and  legally 
act  as  its  representative.  He  is  merely  the 
creature  of  the  State,  the  general  treasury  re- 


102  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

ceiving  the  profits  of  the  business  jointly  with 
him.  It  in  nowise  changes  the  situation  when 
you  make  the  same  individual  the  owner  of 
the  bar  and  the  judge  on  the  bench — for  in 
both  cases  it  is  the  State  that  acts.  The  prin- 
ciple remains  the  same.  But  why  did  people 
hold  up  their  hands  in  holy  horror  at  this  in- 
cident ?  Because  it  was  a  concrete  illustration 
of  the  basal  principle  of  the  license  system, 
which  has  been  hitherto  overlooked,  but  in 
this  case  stood  out  in  all  its  hideous  deformity. 
The  meaning  of  it  all  is  that  at  heart  the  peo- 
ple are  right,  and  when  they  once  really  do 
understand  the  true  inwardness  of  the  license 
business,  there  is  already  enough  righteous 
dynamite  under  it  to  blow  it  back  into  the 
dark  ages  where  it  belongs!  God  speed  the 
day! 

Second — The  open  saloon  is  the  rendezvous 
of  criminals — criminals  against  government 
and  outlaws  from  society.  It  is  the  home  of 
red-handed  anarchy.  There  are  five  or  six 
Sunday-schools  in  Chicago  in  which  Anarchists 
teach  their  children  the  gospel  according  to 


THE    TEMPERA  A'CE  PROBLEM.  183 

John  Most  and  the  devil.  Where  are  those 
schools  held  ?  In  the  saloons.  No  other  roof 
would  give  shelter  to  such  a  devilish  brood. 
The  saloon  is  the  school  into  which  our  foreign 
population  is  first  dragged,  and  taught  to 
curse  religion,  the  Bible,  God,  the  Sabbath, 
home,  and  all  law.  It  is  the  open  slaughter 
pen  in  which  are  butchered  shame,  manhood, 
honor,  ambition,  love.  Is  it  right  to  legalize 
such  an  institution,  or  offer  a  premium  for  its 
management  ?  You  may  say  we  cannot  make 
men  religious  or  sober  by  legislation.  Per- 
haps so ;  but  in  God's  name  I  protest  against 
making  them  drunk  by  legislation.  If  you 
cannot  make  a  man  sober  by  law,  then  in  the 
sacred  name  of  law,  give  no  more  legal  per- 
mits to  make  them  drunk. 

Third — The  open  saloon  forces  on  the  mar- 
ket at  least  forty  per  cent  more  liquors  than 
the  appetite  of  the  public,  even  in  its  present 
degenerate  condition,  could  consume  without 
its  allurements.  It  has  been  asserted  again 
and  again  by  the  liquor  trade  that  more  is  sold 
under  prohibition  than  license,  and  this,  their 


1 84  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

own  statement,  they  invariably  prove  to  be  a 
lie  by  their  frantic  efforts  to  defeat  prohibition 
and  secure  its  repeal  whenever  enacted.  This 
assertion,  I  remember,  was  made  last  year  in 
Raleigh,  N.  C,  by  Northern  liquor  dealers,  who 
were  there  with  their  money  and  agents,  bely- 
ing their  words  by  paying  $5  a  head  for  votes 
for  license.  When  the  first  saloon  was  opened, 
after  two  years  of  prohibition,  men  enough 
could  not  be  placed  behind  the  bar  to  accom- 
modate the  customers.  Three  carloads  of 
liquors,  it  is  said,  were  consumed  within  thirty- 
five  hours,  showing  that  the  supply  had  not 
been  equal  to  the  demand. 

Senator  Ingalls,  speaking  of  the  results  in 
Kansas  of  prohibition,  says  in  the  Forum  for 
August,  1889: 

"  But  the  habit  of  drinking  is  dying  out. 
Temptation  being  removed  from  the  young 
and  the  infirm,  they  have  been  fortified  and 
redeemed.  The  liquor-seller,  being  proscribed, 
is  an  outlaw,  and  his  vocation  is  disreputable. 
Drinking  being  stigmatized,  is  out  of  fashion 
and  the  consumption  of  intoxicants  has  enor- 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  185 

mously  decreased.  Intelligent  and  conserva- 
tive observers  estimate  the  reduction  at  ninety 
per  cent;  it  cannot  be  less  than  seventy-five." 
Fourth — Public  sentiment  can  never  be  edu- 
cated in  true  temperance  sentiment  v/hile  the 
saloon  is  open  and  protected  by  the  law.  The 
liquor  business  is  too  respectable  by  far,  these 
people  are  too  often  received  into  society  in 
which  good  and  true  people  mingle,  and  are 
even  received  by  the  Roman  Catholic  church, 
and  in  exceptional  instances  some  others. 
How  the  whiskey  men  groan  that  prohibition 
drives  the  whole  business  to  low-down  chan- 
nels— that  mean  low-down  men  are  then  en- 
gaged in  it.  Exactly  so  ;  and  that  is  just  what 
we  want.  I  want  to  see  mean  men  only  en- 
gaged in  it.  The  meaner  a  man  is,  the  better 
qualified  a  man  is  for  the  business  anyway. 
We  want  to  drive  it  into  the  back  alleys, 
cellars,  and  dark  holes,  where  only  the  desper- 
ate and  devilish  will  sneak  to  get  it.  Less  re- 
spectable indeed !  We  want  to  make  it  bite 
the  dust  and  crawl  in  the  dirt,  mud,  and  filth. 
Make  it  crawl,  crawl,  crawl  in  the  ditch,  in  the 


1 86  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

gutter,  in  the  sewer,  and  on  into  hell  where  it 
belongs ! 

Fifth — It  is  asserted  that  under  prohibition 
any  man  can  get  drunk  that  wants  to — well, 
I  any  fool  knows  that^ — but  I  charge  the  open 
I  saloon  with  giving  this  poison  to  thousands 
who  don't  want  it.  We  cannot  protect  those 
who  want  it,  and  will  have  it — we  can  save 
those  who  don't  want  it,  and  yet  now  have  it 
thrust  under  their  nose.  You  can  save  the 
honest  workingman,  who  at  eventide  must 
v/alk  by  those  open  doors  through  which  float 
the  sounds  of  music  and  revelry  that  entice 
him  in.  You  can  save  the  noble  young  from 
the  allurements  of  such  legalized  resorts,  made 
bright  and  attractive  with  tinsel  and  obscenity 
in  print  and  picture.  To  carry  no-license  is 
not  the  end  of  temperance  work;  it  is  but  the 
beginning  of  the  fight  for  the  mastery  of  the 
young  mind  and  life :  it  is  the  silencing  of  the 
battery  of  the  enemy,  and  the  opening  of  our 
own — the  beginning  of  a  victorious  ending! 
Can  we  be  indifferent  to  such  a  work  ? 

Will  we  ever  succeed  in  closino;  the  saloons  ? 


THE    TEMPERANCE  PROBLEM.  187 

Let  no  man  who  loves  God  and  humanity  for 
a  moment  despair.  We  are  as  sure  to  succeed 
as  that  God  lives,  and  that  truth  and  right  will 
prevail.  Prohibition  has  recently  been  de- 
feated in  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Pennsylvania.  But  these 
defeats  are  in  reality  victories.  The  saloon  is 
simply  piling  up  wrath  against  the  day  of 
Avrath.  The  vast  majority  of  the  voters  of 
America  are  to-day  opposed  to  the  saloon.  It 
will  only  take  a  few  more  years  for  the  high 
license  idea  to  fizzle  out.  In  the  hearts  of 
many  good  people  this  high  license  blunder  is 
yet  firmly  fixed.  But  they  will  see  clearly  by- 
and-by,  and  then — ^the  flood  comes!  The 
saloon  power  has  succeeded,  just  now,  in 
damming  the  flow  of  prohibition  waters.  They 
have  placed  another  layer  on  the  dam  in  Penn- 
sylvania, when  the  waters  were  about  to  break 
over — so  they  did  in  Massachusetts,  and  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  in  Rhode  Island.  But 
every  inch  higher  they  raise  that  dam  only  post- 
pones for  a  while  the  more  awful  destruction 
that  is  sure  to  come.     Behind  the  dam   the 


l88  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

water  is  slowly  and  noiselessly  rising.  Back 
up  on  the  mountains,  whose  streams,  pure  and 
sparkling,  pour  their  treasures  into  the  valley, 
I  hear  the  roll  of  distant  thunder — it  is  the  ris- 
ing heart-beat  of  long-suffering  humanity! 
Higher  and  higher  those  waters  are  climbing, 
adding  ton  on  ton  of  hydraulic  pressure.  That 
dam  is  not  solid.  It  is  built  of  mud  and  filth 
and  rubbish.  It  has  been  repaired,  again  and 
again  in  times  of  emergency,  by  stufifing  glass 
bottles,  newspapers,  and  greenbacks  into  the 
cracks.  In  the  centre  there  is  nothing  solid — 
nothing  that  can  withstand  the  mighty  pres- 
sure of  those  climbing  waters.  By-and-by  a 
storm  of  righteous  indignation  will  sweep  the 
nation,  and  every  rivulet  on  hill  and  mounta-in- 
side  will  come  plunging  down  into  the  valley  a 
roaring  torrent !  And  then  the  flood !  Every 
saloon  is  built  below  that  dam.  And  there 
will  not  be  one  left  to  tell  the  story  of  their 
fall!     God  speed  the  day! 


JESUITISM.  189 


JESUITISM. 

I  ABHOR  denominational  bickerings.  I  be- 
lieve in  religious  liberty— the  right  of  every 
man  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  his  own  conscience.  This  is  one  of  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  Americanism.  Jesuit- 
ism, however,  is  the  negation  of  Americanism. 
Jesuitism  means  imperialism.  Americanism 
means  freedom.  Jesuitism  means  the  uncon- 
ditional slavery  of  the  individual  to  the  ma- 
chine. Americanism  means  the  highest  liberty 
of  the  individual.  Jesuitism  not  only  enslaves 
its  own  subjects,  but  seeks  to  throttle  all  who 
do  not  bow  to  its  supremacy.  For  this  reason 
I  hate  it. 

This  so-called  Society  of  Jesus  is  not  strictly 
a  religious  order,  it  is  social  and  political  in 
its  foundation  and  purposes,  and  merely  uses 
religion  as  one  of  the  weapons  with  which  to 


19<^  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

accomplish  its  ends.  Secrecy  is  one  of  the 
cardinal  principles  of  the  order,  deceit  and 
hypocrisy  among  its  favorite  devices,  for  which 
ample  apology  is  made  in  its  codes.  They 
are  an  organized  band  of  conspirators,  under 
the  most  thorough  discipline  and  complete 
organization  ever  conceived  by  the  mind  of 
man.  They  believe  in  higher  education,  and 
have  been,  and  are,  the  chief  teachers  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church.  They  have  ever 
been  animated  by  the  highest  ambitions. 
They  once  furnished  the  world  with  many  of 
its  most  illustrious  heroes  and  martyrs.  They 
are  made  of  stern  material.  They  are  terribly 
in  earnest.  The  Jesuit  is  to-day  supreme  in 
the  councils  of  Rome.  He  educates  the  priest- 
hood and  young  manhood  of  the  American 
Catholics.  He  is  the  supreme  dictator  of  the 
methods  of  education  adopted  by  this  church. 
His  principles  are  now  promulgated  by  the 
Pope  from  the  Vatican  as  the  voice  of  God. 

By  reason  of  its  growing  power  and  influ- 
ence in  America,  Jesuitism,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a 
menace  to  our  country — a  menace  to  individ- 


JESUITISM.  191 

ual  liberty,  religious  liberty,  and  the  freedom  of 
the  whole  people. 

I.  I  say  this,  first,  because  of  the  HISTORY 
OF  THE  Order. 

From  the  Reformation,  with  Martin  Luther 
as  its  leader,  dates  the  birth  of  modern  thought. 
The  mind  of  man  lay  chained  in  the  dungeons 
of  ecclesiasticism.  The  Reformation  set  mind 
free,  and  man  began  to  think.  Here  freedom 
was  born.  But  the  great  wave  of  this  revo- 
lution that  swept  like  a  cyclone  over  a  part 
of  Europe,  produced  also  a  counter  wave  in 
the  Latin  nations  near  by.  While  a  Luther 
was  born  to  Germany,  Spain  produced  a 
Loyola.  Loyola  was  the  negation  of  Luther. 
Luther's  life  was  given  to  freeing  the  world 
from  the  domination  of  the  errors  of  the  Dark 
Ages,  and  the  dominion  of  the  Pope.  Loyola's 
life  was  given  to  the  undoing  of  Luther's 
work,  the  reestablishment  of  the  absolute 
despotism,  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  the  Pope. 
Loyola  was  a  general  in  the  Spanish  army. 
The  order  he  founded  was  one  run  upon  the 
sternest  principles  of   military  discipline,   the 


192  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

complete  merging  of  the  individual  into  the 
machine.  Absolute  obedience  to  one  supreme 
commander  was  the  fundamental  principle. 
His  command,  right  or  wrong,  was  to  be 
obeyed  as  the  voice  of  God. 

His  success  was  phenomenal.  In  a  short 
time  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  most  powerful 
organization  in  the  world.  He  rescued  France, 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  Austria  from  the  grasp 
of  the  Reformation.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
Luther  moved  Europe  by  ideas  which  eman- 
cipated the  millions,  and  set  in  motion  a  pro- 
gress which  is  the  glory  of  our  age ;  Loyola 
invented  a  machine  which  arrested  this  pro- 
gress, and  drove  the  Catholic  world  back  again 
into  the  superstitions  and  despotisms  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

The  success  of  Jesuitism  was  due  to  the 
extraordinary  virtues,  abilities,  and  zeal  of  the 
early  Jesuits  and  their  wonderful  machinery. 
After  the  first  period  of  sacrifice  and  success, 
followed  the  period  of  power  and  wealth,  and 
consequent  corruption,  in  which  the  first 
ripened  fruit  was  gathered  from  the  tree  which 


JESUITISM.  193 

Loyola  had  planted.  Their  ambitions  knew 
no  bounds.  Slaves  themselves  to  one  supreme 
will,  they  sought  to  enslave  the  world  they 
had  conquered.  Their  principles  at  once 
clashed  with  all  civil  power,  whose  rights 
they  refused  to  recognize,  denying  all  allegi- 
ence  to  any  state.  For  political  reasons  they 
were,  therefore,  expelled  from  Portugal  in 
1759;  from  Spain  in  1767;  from  France  in 
1764;  and  finally  in  1773  the  society  was  dis- 
solved by  Pope  Clement  XIV.,  upon  the  united 
petition  of  all  the  Catholic  nations  of  Christen- 
dom. But  in  1814,  Pope  Pius  VII.  concluded 
that  Clement  had  made  a  mistake  (both  of 
them  infallible,  however),  and  so  he  restored 
the  order  to  its  ancient  foundations.  The 
reason  why  Pius  restored  the  order  was  a  very 
simple  one,  Jesuitism  had  swallowed  Roman 
Catholicism,  and  to  oppose  Jesuitism  was  to 
cut  his  own  throat.  Again  they  began  opera- 
tions, and  again  it  became  necessary  to  expel 
'  them  from  the  principal  nations  of  Europe. 
They  vv-ere  expelled  from  Switzerland  in  1847; 
from  Spain  in  1868;  from  Germany  in  1872; 
13 


194  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

and  from  France  in  1880.  Westward  the  star 
of  empire  takes  its  course,  and  these  exiled 
priests  have  thronged  to  the  shores  of  free 
America,  and  are  here  scheming  and  dreaming 
of  new  kingdoms  and  conquests.  They  are 
doing  to-day,  what  they  always  have  been 
doing,  what  they  always  must  be  doing, 
plotting  and  scheming,  plotting  and  scheming 
to  stop  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  en- 
slave mankind,  until  all  bow  and  kiss  the  big 
toe  of  some  feeble  old  Italian,  who  has  the 
effrontery  to  call  himself  infallible  and  the 
vicegerent  of  God  on  earth ! 

II.  Because  of  their  principles  and  doctrines, 
the  Jesuits  are  a  menace  to  our  country. 
Where  thef-e  is  the  highest  development  of 
liberty,  there  is  always  a  danger  of  a  counter- 
current,  a  reaction — so  is  Jesuitism  the  coun- 
ter-current of  Americanism. 

I.  These  men  are  politically  against  our  in- 
stitutions, and  can  never  be  amalgamated  with 
our  people.  They  are  the  serfs  of  a  foreign 
feudal  lord.  They  are  the  slaves  of  a  foreign 
master.      They   take   a   solemn    oath   to    put 


JESUITISM.  195 

themselves  in  the  hands  of  their  superior  com- 
mander as  a  corpse,  with  no  will  or  thought  of 
their  own.  Each  one,  among  other  things  in 
his  oath,  swears:  "I  do  renounce  and  disown 
any  allegiance  as  due  to  any  heretical  King, 
Prince,  or  State  named  Protestant,  or  obedi- 
ence to  any  of  their  inferior  magistrates  or 
officers." 

2.  Their  fundamental  political  doctrine  is 
that  the  Church  (Roman  Catholic)  is  above  the 
State,  which  is  nothing  short  of  high  treason. 
This  is  the  corner  stone  of  their  educational 
and  religious  system.  In  1870  they  forced  on 
the  Romish  church  the  dogma  of  the  Pope's 
infallibility — an  error  that  has  had  an  over- 
whelming influence  in  shaping  the  policy  of 
the  church.  To  show  their  triumph  I  quote 
some  recent  declarations  from  the  highest 
Catholic  authorities. 

Bishop  Gilmour  in  his  Lenten  Letter,  March, 
1873,  said  :  "  Nationalities  must  be  subordinate 
to  religion,  and  we  must  learn  that  we  are 
Catholics  first  and  citizens  next.  God  is 
above  man,  and  the  church  above  the  state." 


196  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

Cardinal  Manning  put  the  following  sen- 
tences in  the  mouth  of  the  Pope :  "  I  acknowl- 
edge no  civil  power;  I  am  the  subject  of  no 
prince;  and  I  claim  more  than  this.  I  claim 
to  be  the  supreme  judge  and  director  of  the 
consciences  of  men ;  of  the  peasant  that  tills 
the  fields,  and  of  the  prince  that  sits  upon  the 
throne ;  of  the  household  that  lives  in  the 
shade  of  privacy,  and  the  legislator  that  makes 
laws  for  kingdoms;  I  am  the  sole,  last,  su- 
preme judge  of  what  is  right  and  wrong."  He 
also  says:  "Moreover,  we  declare,  afifirm,  de- 
fine, and  pronounce  it  to  be  necessary  to  sal- 
vation for  every  human  creature  to  be  subject 
to  the  Roman  Pontiff."  Of  the  utter  degra- 
dation of  reason,  and  the  stifling  of  conscience 
the  teaching  of  Cardinal  Bellarmine  affords  a 
good  example:  "If  the  Pope  should  err  by 
enjoining  vices  or  forbidding  virtues,  the 
CJinrcJi  would  be  obliged  to  believe  vices  to  be  good 
and  virtues  bad,  unless  it  would  sin  against 
conscience." 

3.  The  doctrines  of  Jesuitism  are  subversive 
of  true  morality  and  destructive  of  the  very 


JESUITISM.  197 

foundations  of  character.  I  can  only  quote  a 
few  of  these  doctrines  as  illustrations.  The 
Parliament  of  Paris  on  March  5th,  1762,  in  a  de- 
cree against  the  Jesuits  drew  up  the  following 
indictment  which  has  never  been  successfully 
questioned: 

"  These  doctrines,  the  consequence  of  which 
would  destroy  natural  law,  that  rule  of  moral- 
ity which  God  himself  has  implated  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  and,  consequently,  would  break 
all  the  ties  of  civil  society,  in  authorizing  theft, 
lying,  perjury,  the  most  criminal  impurity, 
and  generally  all  passions  and  all  crimes,  by 
the  teaching  of  secret  compensation,  of  equiv- 
ocation, of  mental  restrictions,  of  probabilism 
and  philosophical  sin ;  destroy  all  feelings  of 
humanity  among  men,  in  authorizing  homicide 
and  parricide,  annihilate  royal  authority,  etc." 

We  must  remember  that  this  was  the  official 
utterance  of  a  Roman  Catholic  nation  through 
its  Parliament  assembled.  An  examination  of 
their  doctrines  as  taught  to-day,  shows  the 
fact  that  they  are  substantial!}'  the  same  doc- 
trines taught  in  1762.  See  "THE  DOCTRINES 
OF  THE  Jesuits,"  published  by  B.  F.  Brad- 
bury &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass.,  which  is  a  translation 
of  the  works  of  Father  Gury,  S.  J.,  Professor 


198  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

of  Moral  Theology  in  the  College  Romain  of 
France. 

Hear  Father  Gury  on  the  celebrated  doc- 
trine of  mental  reservation  : 

"A  culprit  interrogated  judicially,  or  not 
lawfully  by  the  judge,  may  answer  that  he 
has  done  nothing,  meaning  '  about  which  you 
have  the  right  to  question  me,'  or,  '  that  I  am 
obliged  to  avow.' 

This  mode  of  restriction  may  be  used  by  all 
public  functionaries  questioned  on  things  con- 
fided to  their  discretion ;  or  secretaries,  am- 
bassadors, generals,  magistrates,  lawyers,  phy- 
sicians and  all  those  who  have  reasons  to  hide 
some  truth  relative  to  their  charge. 

You  must  keep  a  conjided  SQcrci,  even  if  you 
are  questioned  about  it  by  a  superior,  a  judge, 
etc.  You  must  answer  them:  "  I  do  not  know 
anything  about  it,"  because  that  knowledge  is 
for  you  absolutely  as  if  it  did  not  exist ;  and 
thus  should  the  secret  be  confided  expressly 
or  tacitly."  ("  Treatise  on  the  Seventh  and 
Tenth  Precepts  of  the  Decalogue,"  Articles 
443,  444,  472.) 


JESUITISM.  199 

As  to  stealing  we  have  this : 

"Question.  Must  one  always  be  considered 
guilty  of  theft  when  he  takes  the  property  of 
his  neighbor?"  How  simply  God's  word  an- 
swers :  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal !  "  But  hear  the 
Jesuit's  answer!  "It  may  happen  that  the 
one  from  whom  the  property  is  stolen  has  no 
right  to  be  opposed  to  the  theft:  which  takes 
place,  for  instance,  when  the  one  who  takes 
what  belongs  to  his  neighbor  is  in  extreme 
need ;  and  when  he  takes  only  what  he  badly 
needs ;  or  zvJien  he  takes  it  secretly,  as  a  covipcn- 
sation,  not  being  able  to  secure  in  a  different 
way  what  is  owed  him  by  right  of  justice." 
Under  such  teaching  we  need  not  wonder  that 
servants  should  "  compensate  "  themselves  se- 
cretly at  their  employer's  expense. 

III.  The  Jesuit  is  a  menace  to  our  country 
because  of  what  he  is  now  doing  the  world 
over — and  what  they  mean  to  do  in  America 
in  particular.  They  lead  the  Catholic  church 
in  its  aggressions  upon  the  liberties  of  man- 
kind in  all  nations.  Every  Cardinal,  arch- 
bishop and  bishop  of  the  Catholic  church  now 


200  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

takes  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  in 
which  occur  the  following  words:  "Heretics, 
schismatics,  and  rebels  to  our  said  lord  (the 
Pope),  or  his  aforesaid  successors,  I  will  to  my 
utmost  persecute  and  oppose."  Rome  is  tol- 
erant in  America  simply  because  she  is  not 
yet  strong  enough  to  be  intolerant. 

Says  Bishop  O'Connor:  "  Religious  liberty 
is  merely  endured  until  the  opposite  can  be 
carried  into  effect  without  peril  to  the  Catho- 
lic world."  TJie  Catholic  Review  ?>^y?,:  "Pro- 
testantism, of  every  form,  has  not,  and  never 
can  have,  any  right  where  Catholicity  is  tri- 
umphant." The  Archbishop  of  St.  Louis  once 
said  :  "  Heresy  and  unbelief  are  crimes ;  and  in 
Christian  countries,  as  in  Italy  and  Spain,  for 
instance,  where  all  the  people  are  Catholics, 
and  where  the  Catholic  religion  is  an  essential 
part  of  the  law  of  the  land,  they  are  punished 
as  other  crimes." 

Another  Catholic  writer  of  high  authority, 
much  petted  at  Rome,  Mr.  Louis  Veuillot, 
puts  it  in  a  nutshell  thus: 

"  When   there  is  a  Protestant  majority  we 


JESUITISM.  20 1 

claim  religious  liberty,  because  such  is  their 
principle;  but  when  we  are  in  majority  we  re- 
fuse it,  because  that  is  ours." 

In  accordance  with  these  principles  we  see 
a  Protestant  minister  arraigned  in  Spain  last 
year  for  the  crime  of  denying  that  the  image 
of  the  "  Virgen  de  los  Dolores  "  had  any  power 
to  heal  diseases.  Hear  the  sentence  of  the 
court. 

"  For  this  sacrilege  of  '  comparing,'  as  the 
court  says,  the  sacred  image  of  the  Virgen 
de  los  Dolores  with  the  manger  of  the  horse  of 
the  priest,  and  attributing  the  same  virtue  to 
this  miserable  object  as  to  that,  by  which  the 
greatest  scorn  is  thrown  upon  the  zvorsJiip  of 
the  holy  images,  etc.,  Pastor  Vila  is  condemned 
to  two  years,  four  months  and  one  day  of 
imprisonment;  to  pay  a  fine  of  two  hundred 
and  ^ity  pesetas  ($50),  and  the  costs  of  court." 

We  turn  to  Mexico  and  hear  President  Diaz 
thus  address  the  last  Congress : 

"  This  progress  has  indeed  been  praiseworthy 
because  of  the  determined  opposition  of  the 
Catholic  clergy,  sworn  enemies  of  all  civiliza- 


202  LH'IXG  PROBLEM S. 

tion,  who  have  always  tried  to  stop  the  intel- 
lectual flight  of  free  peoples."  Further  on  he 
said : 

"  The  Catholic  clergy  of  Mexico,  united  in 
fatal  concubinage  with  a  faction  of  unworthy 
Mexicans,  have  thrice  betrayed  their  country. 
In  each  case  their  crime  was  generously  for- 
given, though  not  forgotten  by  the  republic. 
First,  in  the  glorious  days  when  independence 
was  won,  the  traitorous  clergy,  forming  alli- 
ance with  the  nation's  conquerors  and  using 
excommunion  as  a  weapon,  hindered  for  eleven 
years  the  attainment  of  liberty.  A  second 
time,  during  the  celebrated  period  of  reform, 
the  clergy  joined  the  country's  enemies.  A 
third  time  traitorous,  in  the  French  usurpa- 
tion, they  helped  set  up  a  foreign  monarchy 
on  Mexican  soil." 

What  are  they  doing  in  America  ?  Building 
colleges,  schools,  and  churches,  pulling  politi- 
cal wires  in  the  cities,  the  States,  the  nation, 
and  crushing  the  last  spark  of  free  thought 
that  may  linger  in  the  breasts  of  their  Ameri- 
can priesthood.    Father  Lambert,  of  Waterloo, 


JESUITISM.  203 

N.  Y.,  was  driven  to  Rome,  and  driven  back 
in  disgrace,  simply  because  he  dared  to  think. 
Dr.  McGlynn,  was  driven  out  of  his  church, 
excommunicated,  and  cursed,  simply  because 
he  was  guilty  of  a  little  thought  outside  the 
beaten  tracks  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
dogmas.  He  was  informed  that  he  had  no  right 
to  think  for  himself;  and  for  pitying  the  woes 
of  humanity,  and  for  advocating  what  seemed 
to  him  a  remedy,  he  was  crushed  by  the  ma- 
chine. He  was  too  big  a  man  to  be  annihil- 
ated by  such  a  process,  however.  The  ma- 
chine has  lost  his  power,  and  freedom  has 
gained  a  new  champion. 

Cardinal  Gibbons  reads  us  a  lession  in  catJio- 
licity  by  calling  on  freemen  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  curse  Giordano  Bruno  for  daring  to 
be  a  philosopher,  for  daring  to  think,  when 
forbidden  by  the  machine  of  the  Middle  Ages 
to  do  so.  He  says  it  is  a  crime  and  outrage 
that  Bruno's  friends  should  dare  to  build  a 
monument  to  his  memory  on  the  spot  where 
he  was  burned  to  death  by  order  of  Rome. 
Poor  Bruno  has  been  dead  nearly  three  hvuv 


204  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

dred  years,  and  yet  the  Cardinal,  who  poses 
now  as  the  champion  of  liberty,  calls  on  free 
American  citizens  to  curse  his  memory  and  his 
followers  who  yet  survive.  So  does  the  Cardi- 
nal thus  indorse  his  brutal  murder.  Truly 
Rome  does  not  seem  to  change  on  some  points 
at  least!  Does  the  Cardinal  mean  to  imply  by 
his  tirade  against  Bruno  and  his  friends  that 
he  would  dare  to  re-enact  that  horrible  tragedy 
on  American  soil  if  he  had  the  power? 

Does  Cardinal  Gibbons,  the  highest  and 
most  liberal  representative  of  the  Romish  ma- 
chine, believe  in  religious  liberty  ?  Let  us 
turn  to  his  book  and  see.  We  turn  to  page 
264  and  read  his  definition:  "A  man  enjoys 
religions  liberty  when  he  possesses  the  free 
right  of  worshipping  God  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  a  RIGHT  conscience,  and  of  practising 
a  form  of  religion  most  in  accordance  with  his 
duties  to  God."  A  "  right  "  conscience,  as  he 
elsewhere  shows,  is  a  Roman  Catholic  con- 
science, and  the  only  "  form  of  religion  most  in 
accordance  with  duty  to  God  "  he  shows  else- 
where  to   be    the    Roman    Catholic    religion. 


JESUITISM  205 

Strictly  within  the  bounds  of  that  definition 
he  could  re-enact  the  horrors  of  the  reign  of 
Alva  in  the  Netherlands,  repeat  the  massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  reorganize  the  Spanish 
Inquisition,  rekindle  the  martyrs'  fires,  and 
again  sing  a  Te  Demii  over  it  all !  The  Cardi- 
nal boasts  that  Lord  Baltimore,  a  Roman 
Catholic,  granted  religious  liberty  to  Maryland. 
Perhaps  he  did.  But  in  that  far  he  failed  to 
be  a  good  Romanist  according  to  this  defini- 
tion. If  Baltimore  did  champion  religious  lib- 
erty, he  did  not  learn  his  lesson  from  such  a 
teacher  as  the  Cardinal,  and  he  granted  this 
liberty,  not  by  reason  of,  but  in  spite  of,  his 
religion,  if  we  are  to  judge  by  such  authorities. 
We  need  not  wonder,  then,  that  a  short  time 
ago,  in  Maryland,  a  young  girl  was  arrested  at 
the  dictation  of  a  priest  and  dragged  before  a 
civil  magistrate,  whose  only  crime  consisted  in 
the  fact  that  she  had  professed  conversion  and 
joined  a  Baptist  church.  In  spite  of  all  that 
could  be  done  for  her  defence,  through  the 
machinations  of  this  priest  and  a-  drunken 
father,  she  was  sentenced  to  a  term  of  penal 


2o6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

servitude  in  a  Catholic  reformatory.  And  this 
happened  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  Cardinal's  palace!  Times  seem 
to  have  changed  since  the  days  of  his  Lordship, 
the  founder  of  the  colony! 

A  talented  young  Southerner,  a  citizen  now 
of  New  York  City  and  a  member  of  the  most 
powerful  political  organization  in  the  metrop- 
olis, told  me  voluntarily  the  other  day,  that 
the  more  he  saw  of  the  management  of  the 
politics  of  New  York,  the  more  clearly  he  saw 
the  hand  of  the  Jesuit,  and  the  more  he  trem- 
bled for  the  future  of  the  Republic. 

Their  great  university  is  located  at  the  cap- 
ital of  the  nation  solely  for  political  reasons. 
They  have  their  hands  with  more  or  less  power 
on  every  great  daily  newspaper  in  the  United 
States.  They  know  that  America  holds  the 
destiny  of  the  world  and  they  mean  to  conquer 
America.  Does  any  man  think  that  the  hier- 
archy has  grown  more  liberal  in  modern  times, 
and  that  the  liberties  of  mankind  could  be 
safely  intrusted  in  their  hands?  If  so,  let  him 
read  the  encyclical  that  was  sent  to  America 


j^sr/T/sj/.  207 

last  year  from  Leo  XIII.,  the  present  Pope. 
This  letter  was  received  as  the  voice  of  God. 
It  was  reprinted  in  a  Baltimore  paper  and  a 
leading  Protestant  minister  of  the  city  openly 
challenged  Cardinal  Gibbons  to  give  an  explan- 
ation of  it  that  would  harmonize  it  with  our 
Constitution!  The  Cardinal  did  not  respond. 
And  why  ?  Because  there  was  no  possible  ex- 
planation to  be  given.  Its  whole  spirit  and 
letter  is  the  very  negative  of  our  fundamental 
laws — the  denial  of  the  principles  on  which 
our  Republic  is  built.  The  subject  of  this  en- 
cyclical, strange  to  say,  is  "  Human  Libert}-." 
Now  as  to  civil  liberty,  here  is  a  part  of  what 
the  Pope  says : 

"  For,  once  granted  that  man  is  firmly  per- 
suaded of  his  own  supremacy,  it  follows  that 
the  efficient  cause  of  the  unity  of  civil  society 
is  to  be  sought,  not  in  any  principle  exterior 
or  superior  to  man,  but  simply  in  the  free-will 
of  individuals ;  that  the  power  of  the  state  is 
from  the  people  only;  and  that,  just  as  every 
man's  individual  reason  is  his  only  rule  of  life, 
so    the    collective    reason   of    the    community 


2o8  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

should  be  the  supreme  guide  in  the  manage- 
ment of  public  affairs.  Hence  the  doctrine  of 
the  supremacy  of  the  majority,  and  that  the 
majority  is  the  source  of  all  law  and  authority. 
But,  from  what  has  been  said,  it  is  clear  that 
all  this  is  in  contradiction  to  reason." 

As  to  liberty  of  speech  we  hav^e  this  revela- 
tion :  "  From  this  it  follows,  that  greatly  op- 
posed to  reason,  and  tending  absolutely  to 
pervert  men's  minds,  is  that  liberty  of  which 
we  speak,  in  so  far  as  it  claims  for  itself  the 
right  of  teaching  what  it  pleases — a  liberty 
which  cannot  be  granted  by  the  state  with- 
out failing  in  its  duty.  And  the  more  so,  be- 
cause the  authority  of  the  teacher  has  great 
weight  with  his  hearers,  who  can  rarely  decide 
for  themselves  as  to  the  truth  or  falsehood  of 
the  instruction  given  to  them."  .  .  .  "To  this 
society,  the  Church,  He  intrusted  all  the  truths 
which  He  had  taught,  that  it  might  keep  and 
guard  them,  and  with  lawful  authority  explain 
them;  and  at  the  same  time  He  commanded 
all  nations  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  Church,  as 
if   it   were    His   own,  threatening   those   who 


JESUITISM.  209 

would  not  with  everlasting  perdition."  .  .  . 
"  In  faith  and  in  the  teaching  of  morality,  God 
made  the  Church  a  partaker  of  His  divine 
authority,  and  through  His  divine  help  she 
cannot  be  deceived.  She  is  therefore  the 
greatest  and  most  safe  teacher  of  mankind, 
with  inviolable  right  to  teach  thera." 

That  is  to  say,  he  would  if  he  could,  and  will 
as  soon  as  he  can,  close  every  Protestant 
churc4i,  silence  every  Protestant  preacher,  and 
compel  every  member  to  accept  the  teachings 
of  the  Romish  church.  And  this  should  be 
done  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law.     Hear  him  : 

"  False  doctrines,  than  which  no  mental 
plague  is  greater,  and  vices  which  corrupt  the 
heart,  should  be  diligently  repressed  by  public 
authority  lest  they  insidiously  work  the  ruin  of 
the  state." 

And  in  his  summary,  lest  he  should  be  mis- 
understood by  some  careless  reader,  the  Pope 
reaffirms  his  position  in  language  whose  mean- 
ing cannot  be  mistaken : 

"  From  what  has  been  said,  it  follows  that  it 
is  in  no  way  lawful  to  demand,  to  defend,  or 
H 


2iO  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

to  grant  unconditional  freedom  of  thought,  of 
speech,  of  writing,  or  of  religion,  as  if  they 
were  so  many  rights  which  nature  had  given 
to  man." 

Let  us  remember  that  this  letter  does  not 
bear  the  date  of  the  Dark  Ages,  though  each 
words  drips  with  the  congealed  ignorance,  ar- 
rogance, and  bigotry  of  the  darkest  of  the 
Dark  Ages — no,  my  countrymen,  it  is  dated 
Rome,  A.D.  1888, 

The  learned  De  Tocqueville,  from  Catholic 
France,  predicts,  in  his  great  book  on  America, 
that  if  the  American  Republic  ever  falls  it  will 
be  at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy. 
Certainly  if  they  believe  such  stuff  as  this  we 
have  quoted  to  be  the  voice  of  God,  it  will  be 
well  to  maintain  an  eternal  watch  over  the 
liberties  we  have  won  through  so  much  blood. 
I  do  not  fear  the  result  of  any  conflict  that 
may  come,  but  it  is  time  our  people  were  be- 
ginning to  open  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  it 
is  cominsf. 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  ill 


THE   SCHOOL  WAR. 

The  Boston  Herald  relates  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  was  struck  by  the  demo- 
cratic government  of  the  reading-room  when 
he  was  in  Boston.  He  came  in  one  day  and 
saw  a  little  barefooted  newsboy  sitting  in  one 
of  the  best  chairs  of  the  reading-room,  enjoy- 
ing himself  apparently  for  dear  life.  The 
great  essayist  was  completely  astounded. 
*'  Do  you  let  barefooted  boys  in  this  reading- 
room  ? "  he  asked.  "  You  would  never  see 
such  a  sight  as  that  in  Europe.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve there  is  a  reading-room  in  all  Europe  in 
which  that  boy,  dressed  as  he  is,  would  enter." 
Then  Mr.  Arnold  went  over  to  the  boy,  en- 
gaged him  in  conversation,  and  found  that  he 
was  reading  the  "  Life  of  Washington,"  and  that 
he  was  a  young  gentleman  of  decidedly  anti- 
British  tendencies,  and  for  his  age  remarkably 
well  informed. 


212  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

Mr.  Arnold  remained  talking  with  the  young- 
ster for  some  time,  and,  as  he  came  back  to 
the  desk,  the  great  Englishman  said :  "  I  do 
not  think  I  have  been  so  impressed  with  any- 
thing else  that  I  have  seen  since  arriving  in 
this  country  as  I  am  now  with  meeting  this 
barefooted  boy  in  this  reading-room.  What  a 
tribute  to  democratic  institutions  it  is  to  say 
that  instead  of  sending  that  boy  out  to  wander 
alone  in  the  streets,  they  permit  him  to  come 
in  here  and  excite  his  youthful  imagination 
by  reading  such  a  book  as  the  "  Life  of  Wash- 
ington" !  The  reading  of  that  one  book  may 
change  the  whole  course  of  that  boy's  life,  and 
may  be  the  means  of  making  him  a  useful, 
honorable,  worthy  citizen  of  this  great  coun- 
try. It  is,  I  tell  you,  a  sight  that  impresses  a 
European  not  accustomed  to  your  democratic 
ways." 

Mr.  Arnold  here  touched  the  secret  of  our 
power.  America  has  long  been  the  wonder  of 
modern  times  to  Europeans.  How  we  have 
attained  such  heights  of  power  and  glory  as  a 
nation,  with  a  mob  government  as  they  call  it ; 


THE    SCHOOL    WAR.  213 

how  the  Republic  has  stood  the  strain  of  over 
a  hundred  years,  the  shock  of  the  bloodiest 
civil  war  in  the  records  of  the  world,  and  is  to- 
day the  mightiest  nation  of  earth,  is  to  them  a 
constant  source  of  amazement.  The  secret  of 
it  is,  our  fathers  built  the  Republic  on  free  boys 
and  free  brains ! 

Against  this  system  of  broad  republican 
education  the  Romish  hierarchy  has  made  a 
most  deadly  assault.  Our  American  system  of 
free  schools  they  have  sworn  to  destroy,  and 
to  never  sleep  so  long  as  there  shall  remain 
one  stone  upon  another  to  its  very  founda- 
tions. Understand  me,  I  say  the  hierarchy, 
the  Romish  machine,  has  made  this  assault. 
This  war  on  our  public  schools  was  not  inaug- 
urated by  the  Roman  Catholic  citizens  of 
America.  On  the  other  hand  it  was  forced  on 
them  against  their  will  by  the  men  who  set 
themselves  up  as  the  supreme  directors  of  the 
consciences  of  men.  The  ecclesiastical  ma- 
chine has  seized  the  American  Catholic  people  ^_y^ 
by  the  throat,  pried  their  mouths  open,  and 
are  trying  to  ram  their  sectarian  school  system 


214  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

down  their  throats!  They  have  used  their 
church  organization  to  form  a  gigantic  con- 
spiracy to  this  end,  that  covers  the  length  and 
breadth  of  our  country. 

To  accomplish  their  purposes  two  methods 
of  attack  are  used.  First,  to  withdraw  all 
Roman  Catholic  children  from  the  public 
schools,  and  place  them  in  sectarian  parochial 
schools  under  the  immediate  control  of  priests, 
nuns,  and  monks,  and  then  to  demand  a  divi- 
sion of  the  public  school  fund  for  the  support 
of  these  so-called  educational  establishments. 
Second,  when  this  cannot  be  done,  or  until  it 
is  done,  they  attempt  to  control  by  manipula- 
tions of  various  sorts  the  management  of  our 
public  schools,  mutilating  text-books  to  suit 
their  tastes,  eliminating  entirely  obnoxious 
histories  and  other  books,  and  controlling  the 
appointment  of  teachers.  In  these  secret  as- 
saults they  seek  to  weaken  the  hold  of  the 
public  school  on  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and 
to  defeat  the  purpose  of  its  existence,  which  is 
to  give  a  full,  free,  broad,  liberal  education. 
To  this  end,  therefore,  they  attack  the  public 


THE   SCHOOL    WAR.  215 

schools  because  the  King  James  version  of  the 
Bible  was  read  at  its  opening — saying  that  this 
is  a  Protestant  Bible  and  makes  the  schools 
sectarian.  They  have  succeeded  in  many 
places  in  banishing  the  Bible  from  the  public 
schools,  and  no  sooner  was  this  accomplished 
than  they  turn  and  denounce  anew  these 
schools  because  they  are  "secular,"  "godless," 
"infidel!"  Showing  that  their  purpose  from 
the  beginning  has  been  to  destroy  not  to  re- 
form the  public  school.  This  issue  about  the 
reading  of  the  King  James  Bible  is  a  side 
skirmish  they  have  engaged  in,  to  merely  hide 
the  real  point  of  conflict.  The  friends  of  free 
education  must  not  be  deceived  by  it.  We  can 
afford  to  yield  this  issue  without  a  struggle, 
for  the  purpose  of  our  public  school  is  not  to 
teach  religion — the  state  has  no  right  to  teach 
religion  of  any  sort — and  we  have  no  right  to 
force  our  version  of  the  Bible  upon  the  child 
of  the  Jew  or  Catholic  who  helps  support  these 
public  state  schools.  The  hue  and  cry  about 
our  schools  being  godless  and  infidel,  because 
the  Bible  is  not  read  at  the  opening,  is  the 


2l6  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

merest  tomfoolery!  As  Prof.  Fisher  has  point- 
edly said,  we  cannot  call  a  bank  a  "  godless  " 
or  an  "  infidel  "  institution  because  it  does  not 
open  each  morning  with  a  chapter  from  the 
Bible.  Religion  must  be  taught  at  home  and 
at  church  if  it  is  to  reach  the  heart  and  life.  I 
went  to  a  private  school  in  childhood  that 
made  a  specialty  of  religion.  We  read  copi- 
ously from  the  Bible  and  repeated  the  ten 
commandments  backward  and  forward.  The 
result  on  my  childish  mind  was  merely  the 
confusion  of  real  religion  with  its  outward 
forms  and  the  growth  in  my  heart  of  a  con- 
tempt for  it  all.  For  my  own  part,  I  have 
always  felt  that  such  tampering  with  sacred 
things  was  a  dangerous  experiment.  The  his- 
tory of  nations  whose  public-school  system  has 
been  sectarian  has  overwhelmingly  confirmed 
in  me  this  conviction.  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  on 
this  point,  has  well  said : 

"  The  utmost  care  should  be  taken  to  sur- 
round religious  instruction  with  the  proper 
atmosphere.  The  time  and  place  should  be 
made  to  assist  instead  of  distracting  the  relig- 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  217 

ious  impression.  With  regard  to  the  example 
of  Germany,  Austria,  and  other  states,  that 
place  religious  lessons  on  the  regular  school 
programme  so  many  hours  in  a  week,  I  boldly 
appeal  to  the  experience  of  all  who  have  in- 
spected the  results  of  such  teaching,  and  in- 
quire whether  they  do  not  confirm  the  theo- 
retical conclusions  here  deduced.  Do  not  the 
pupils,  well  taught  in  secular  studies,  learn  to 
hold  in  contempt  the  contents  of  religious 
lessons  ?  Do  they  not  bring  their  critical  in- 
tellects to  bear  on  the  dogmas,  and  become 
sceptical  of  all  religious  truths  ?  Is  not  the 
Germany  of  to-day  the  most  sceptical  of  all 
peoples?  Is  not  its  educated  class  famous  for 
its  '  free  thinking,'  so  called  ?  Then  there  is 
France,  where  the  church  had  its  own  way 
with  religious  instruction  until  recently.  Is 
there  another  class  of  people  in  the  world  so 
abounding  in  atheism  as  the  French  educated 
class  ?  In  other  countries  where  religion  is 
taught  in  the  schools,  does  not  the  authorita- 
tive and  dogmatic  method  of  religion  do  much 
to  render  inefficient  the  instruction  in  the  sec- 


2t8  living  rROBLEMS. 

ular  studies  ?     Is  not  this  apt  to  be  the  case  in 
parochial  schools  ?  " 

So  also  they  have  sought  to  control  school 
boards  and  dictate  the  management  of  the 
public  system.  In  Bcston  last  year  I  had  the 
honor  to  be  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
One  Hundred  who  managed  the  campaign  for 
free  ed<ucation  in  that  city.  We  found  upon 
investigation  that  the  school  board,  which  had 
control  of  all  the  common  schools  of  the  city, 
Primary,  Grammar,  Latin,  High,  and  Normal, 
was  composed  of  twelve  Catholics,  eleven  Pro- 
testants and  one  Jew;  that  all  the  important 
sub-committees  v.-ithin  this  board  were  con- 
trolled by  a  Catholic  majority;  that  the  com- 
mittee on  the  nomination  of  teachers  was 
composed  of  four  Catholics  and  one  Protest- 
ant ;  that  this  whole  board  was  being  prac- 
tically managed  by  a  coterie  of  Jesuit  priests, 
who  examined  and  passed  upon  the  text-books 
that  should  be  used;  that  at  their  dictation 
several  standard  books  had  been  removed 
from  the  schools  without  a  word ;  that  again 
and  ag-ain  had  competent    Protestant  teachers 


THE   SCHOOL    WAR.  219 

been  removed  without  cause  and  incompetent 
Catholic  teachers  put  in  their  places,  and  in- 
struction sent  to  the  superintendents  that  if 
complaints  were  made  they  would  lose  their 
positions.  When  Mr.  Travis  was  removed 
from  his  chair  of  history,  and  Swinton's  Out- 
lines thrown  out  of  the  schools  at  the  com- 
mand of  a  priest  by  this  servile  board,  is  it  any 
wonder  that  it  precipitated  a  storm  of  public 
indignation  that  overturned  the  city  govern- 
ment and  reorganized  that  board  ?  Scores  of 
patriotic  Catholic  citizens  voted  the  ticket  of 
the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  and  there  are 
scores  of  such  men  in  every  city  who  will  be 
found  the  champions  of  our  free  schools  against 
all  enemies. 

But  the  method  on  which  the  hierarchy  lay 
most  stress  and  depend  most  for  ultimate  vic- 
tory, is  the  first  mentioned,  this  second  one 
being  merely  tributary  to  the  main  object — 
namely  to  build  a  system  of  sectarian  schools 
with  the  public  fund  now  used  in  the  mainten- 
ance of  our  free  schools.  This  purpose  is  now 
at  last  boldly  asserted  by  the  hierarchy  and  is 


220  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

being  pushed  with  remorseless  persistency. 
Not  a  legislature  meets  at  Albany  that  is  not 
besieged  by  those  who  seek  to  divide  the  school 
fund  for  sectarian  purposes.  Sometimes  the 
bill  introduced  bears  one  name,  sometimes  an- 
other— it  is  always  the  same  old  Trojan  horse 
with  this  assassin  of  the  free  schools  concealed 
within.  It  is  asserted  that  the  State  of  New 
York  through  its  Assembly  has  already  been 
robbed  of  over  twelve  million  dollars  of  the 
people's  money  that  has  been  given  to  secta- 
rian institutions.  That  we  may  understand 
clearly  the  purpose  of  the  Romish  hierarchy 
in  this  matter,  let  us  consult  their  authorities. 

The  Catholic  World  for  October,  1889,  has  its 
leading  article  on  this  subject,  entitled  "A 
Canadian  Example."  The  whole  purpose  of 
the  article  is  to  show  that  the  only  solution  to 
our  school  question  is  the  division  of  the  school 
fund  on  a  sectarian  basis. 

The  Catholic  Revtciv  of  August  25th  has  the 
following  pointer  on  the  public-school  ques- 
tion: 

"  The  parochial   school  has  come  to  stay. 


THE  SCHOOL   WAR.  22 1 

And  it  means  one  day,  without  infringing  on 
the  public  school  in  any  way,  to  have  the  sup- 
port of  the  State." 

Says  the  Freeman  s  Journal,  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic paper,  in  a  recent  issue:  "This  is  why 
Catholics  ask  that  the  State  let  them  educate 
their  own  children  in  their  own  way,  with  their 
own  share  of  the  school  tax." 

The  Cincinnati  Catholic  Telegraph,  insolently 
and  exultingly  shouts,  "  It  will  be  a  glorious 
day  for  the  Catholics  in  this  country  when 
under  the  blows  of  justice  (?)  and  morality  (?) 
our  school  system  shall  be  shivered  to 
pieces." 

The  Roman  Catholic  priest,  Monsignor 
Capel,  according  to  a  newspaper  report  of  a 
conversation,  which  was  widely  circulated  and 
never  contradicted,  said,  "  The  time  is  not  far 
away  when  the  Roman  Catholics,  at  the  order 
of  the  Pope,  will  refuse  to  pay  their  school 
tax,  and  will  send  bullets  to  the  breasts  of  the 
government  agents,  rather  than  pay  it." 
"The  order  can  come  any  day  from  Rome." 
"  It  will  come  as  quickly  as  the  click  of  the 


224  LIVINC  PROBLEMS. 

trigger,  and   it  will  be   obeyed,  of  course,  as 
coming  from  God  Almighty  himself." 

The  question  is,  Can  we,  as  free  Americans; 
can  we,  as  Protestants;  can  we,  as  patriotic 
Catholic  citizens,  ever  agree  to  those  demands 
of  the  hierarchy  ? 

I.  I  say  we  cannot,  first,  because  these  de- 
mands are  based  on  false  principles  that  attack 
the  very  foundations  of  our  liberties  and  free 
institutions.  These  demands  are  based  on  the 
assertion  that  the  Church  (Roman  Catholic)  is 
above  the  State,  and  has  the  supreme  and  sole 
right  to  educate ;  that  the  priest  is  the  supreme 
master  of  the  citizen.  This  idea  of  ecclesias- 
tical supremacy  is  simply  centuries  out  of 
date.  It  comes  to  us  from  the  gloom  of  the 
Dark  Ages  smelling  of  the  dust  and  mould  of 
an  oblivion  into  which  the  progress  of  man- 
kind has  long  since  kicked  it.  A  Catholic 
bishop  recently  expressed  this  idea  very  tersely 
in  reply  to  a  committee  from  the  parish  who 
waited  on  him  to  ask  if  certain  reforms  within 
that  parish  could  be  carried  out  provided  a 
majority    of   the    members    favored    it.      The 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  223 

bishop,  drew  himself  up  indignantly,  glared  at 
his  questioner  a  moment,  and  replied:  "I  am 
the  majority.  Sir!  " 

The  hierarchy  in  this  fight  pretend  to  cham- 
pion the  "  rights  "  of  parents — that  the  parent 
should  not  be  coerced  into  sending  the  child 
to  the  public  school.  They  mean  rather  that 
they  demand  the  sole  right  to  dictate  to  the 
parent  what  shall  be  done  with  the  child.  Do 
they  allow  any  choice  to  a  parent  as  to  where 
the  child  shall  go  when  withdrawn  from  the 
public  schools  ?  No,  they  say  to  the  parent, 
"  If  you  do  not  send  your  child  to  the  paro- 
chial school,  I  will  hurl  against  you  the  curse 
of  the  church,  and  deny  you  the  right  to  sleep 
in  '  consecrated  '  ground."  Again  and  again 
have  they  used  excommunion  as  a  weapon 
with  which  to  coerce  public-spirited  parents 
into  submission.  An  Irishman  who  patronized 
the  public  schools  of  Charlestown,  Boston,  was 
so  threatened  by  his  priest.  He  consulted  one 
of  the  school  board  as  to  what  he  should  do. 
The  gentleman  advised  him  that  he  was  a  free 
American  citizen  and  that  he  had  the  right  to 


2  24  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

do  as  he  pleased.  He  continued  to  disobey 
the  priest.  He  called  again  on  this  gentleman 
in  a  dilemma  for  advice.  He  said  the  priest 
told  him  if  he  did  not  send  his  child  to  the 
parochial  school  he  would  turn  him  into  a 
rat!  The  gentleman  laughed  and  advised  Pat 
to  let  his  Reverence  try  the  experiment. 
Soon  afterward  he  saw  the  Irishman,  and 
asked  him  how  he  was  getting  on.  Pat  re- 
pled  :  "  Oi'me  right,  Sor,  as  yit !  We  still  sind 
to  the  school — and  oi  told  me  old  o'oman  to 
kape  a  sharp  look  out,  and  if  she  saw  a  tail  a 
growin',  to  kill  the  cat!"  It  is  not  the  right 
of  the  parent  the  priest  thus  seeks  to  protect, 
but  the  right  of  the  machine  to  dictate  to  the 
parent. 

II.  We  cannot  agree  to  these  demands,  be- 
cause these  parochial  schools  are  not  being 
built  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an 
adequate  education  for  the  masses,  but  are 
being  built  for  the  first  purpose  of  destroying 
our  free  educational  system. 

Let  us  consult  Catholic  authorities  and  see 
if  this  is  not  the  case.     An  American,  who  was 


THE    SCHOOL    WAR.  225 

in  Rome  on  one  occasion,  was  astonished  at 
the  appalling  ignorance  of  the  people  of  Italy. 
Being  an  American,  he  was  fool  enough  to  be- 
lieve in  universal  education,  so  he  sought 
Cardinal  Antonelli,  the  Papal  Secretary  of 
State,  and  asked  him  for  an  explanation  of  the 
situation.  In  the  Cardinal's  reply  he  said  that 
he  "  thought  it  better  that  the  children  should 
grow  up  in  ignorance  than  be  educated  in  such 
a  system  of  schools  as  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts supports ;  that  the  essential  part  of  edu- 
cation was  the  catechism ;  and  while  arithme- 
tic and  geography  and  other  similar  studies 
might  be  useful,  they  were  not  essential." 
(////.  Rev.,  vol.  8,  p.  293.) 

The  catechism  the  essential  part  of  an  edu- 
cation !  And  this  from  the  Vatican,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  parochial  system  !  Dr.McGlynn, 
who  claims  to  be  still  a  good  Catholic  in  prin- 
ciple, says  on  this  point : 

"  The  extraordinary  zeal  manifested  for  get- 
ting up  these  sectarian  schools  and  institutions 
is,  first  of  all,  prompted  by  jealousy  and  rivalry 
of  our  public  schools  and  institutions,  and  by 
15 


2  26  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  desire  to  keep  children  and  other  bene- 
ficiaries from  the  latter;  and,  secondly,  by  the 
desire  to  make  employment  for  and  give  com- 
fortable homes  to  the  rapidly-increasing  hosts 
of  monks  and  nuns  who  make  so-called  educa- 
tion and  so-called  charity  their  regular  busi- 
ness, for  which  a  very  common  experience 
shows  that  they  have  but  little  qualification 
beyond  their  professional  stamp  and  garb.  It 
is  not  risking  much  to  say  that  if  there  were 
no  public  schools  there  would  be  very  few 
parochial  schools,  and  the  Catholic  children, 
for  all  the  churchmen  would  do  for  them, 
would  grow  up  in  brutish  ignorance  of  letters; 
and  a  commonplace  of  churchmen  here  would 
be  the  doctrine  taught  by  the  Jesuits  in  Italy, 
in  their  periodical  magazine,  the  Civita  Catto- 
lica,  that  the  people  do  not  need  to  learn  to 
read ;  that  all  they  need  is  bread  and  the  cate- 
chism, the  latter  of  which  they  could  manage 
to  know  something  of  even  without  knowing 
how  to  read." 

Victor  Hugo,  in  his  famous  speech  in  opposi- 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  227 

tion    to    Jesuit  control  of   the    education   of 
France,  uses  these  burning  words: 

"You  claim  the  liberty  of  teaching.  Stop; 
be  sincere;  let  us  understand  the  liberty  you 
claim.  It  is  the  liberty  of  not  teaching.  You 
wish  us  to  give  you  the  people  to  instruct. 
Very  well.  Let  us  see  your  pupils.  Let  us 
see  those  you  have  produced.  What  have  you 
done  for  Italy  ?  What  have  you  done  for 
Spain  ?  For  centuries  you  have  kept  in  your 
hands,  at  your  discretion,  in  your  school,  these 
two  great  nations,  illustrious  among  the  illus- 
trious. What  have  you  done  for  them  ?  I 
shall  tell  you. 

"  Italy,  which  taught  mankind  to  read,  now 
knows  not  how  to  read.  Yes !  Italy  is,  of  all 
the  States  of  Europe,  that  where  the  smallest 
number  know  how  to  read. 

"  Spain,  magnificently  endowed  Spain,  which 
received  from  the  Romans  her  first  civiliza- 
tion; from  the  Arab  her  second  civilization; 
■from  Providence,  in  spite  of  you,  a  world — 
America — Spain,  thanks  to  you,  rests  under  a 


228  LIVING  PROBLEM::,. 

yoke  of  stupor,  which  is  a  yoke  of  degradation 
and  decay.  Spain  has  lost  the  secret  power  it 
obtained  from  the  Romans,  the  genius  of  art 
it  had  from  the  Arabs,  the  world  (of  America) 
it  had  from  God ;  and  in  exchange  for  all  that 
you  have  made  it  lose,  it  has  received  from 
you  the  INQUISITION;  the  Inquisition,  which 
certain  of  your  party  try  to-day  to  re-establish  ; 
which  has  burned  on  the  funeral  pile  millions 
of  men ;  the  Inquisition,  which  disinterred  the 
dead  to  burn  them  as  heretics;  w^iich  declared 
the  children  of  heretics  infamous  and  incapa- 
ble of  any  public  honors,  excepting  only  those 
who  shall  have  denounced  their  fathers.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  what  you  have  done  for  two  great 
nations.  What  do  you  wish  to  do  for  France? 
Stop!  you  have  just  come  from  Rome!  I 
congratulate  you ;  you  have  had  fine  success 
there;  you  have  come  from  gagging  the 
Roman  people,  and  now  you  wish  to  gag  the 
French  people,  .  .  .  Take  care!  France  is  a 
lion,  and  is  alive."  We  may  Likewise  add  to 
meddling  enemies  of  our  schools,  '*  Take  care! 
America  is  a  lion,  and  is  alive !  " 


THE   SCHOOL    WAR.  229 

As  a  climax  of  consistency,  look  now  at  the 
sentence  I  quoted  from  the  Catholic  Review^  of 
August  25th :  "  Means  one  day,  without  infring- 
ing^on  the  pubhc  school  in  any  way,  to  have 
the  support  of  the  State  !  "     Could  mortal  man 
conceive    of    a    more    monstrous    absurdity! 
"  Have  the  support  of  the  State  "-without  in- 
fringing on  the  public  school  in  any  way!     To 
the  mixture  of  simplicity  and  cheek  composing 
that  sentence  I  can  remember  but  one  parallel, 
and  that  is  the  case  of  the  county  commission- 
ers who  resolved  to  build   a  new  jail.     They 
resolved,  "  ist,  to  build  a  new  jail ;  2d,  to  build 
it  out  of  the  bricks  used  in  the  old  one;    3d 
to  keep  the  prisoners  in  the  old  one  while  they 
built  the  new  one;  4th  to  build  the  new  one 
on  the  site  where  the  old  one  now  stands!" 
To  have  capped  the  climax  of  asininity  they 
should  have  added  as  a  f^nal  clause  "without 
infringing  on  the  old   building   in  any  way." 
Such  a  resolution  thus  concluded  would  have 
furnished   a  worthy  companion    piece   to   be 
framed  and  hung  up  in  a  museum  alongside 


230  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

this  marvellous  proposition  from  the  Catholic 
Review  ! 

III.  We  cannot  agree  to  these  demands  be- 
cause the  sectarian  parochial  school  is  narrow 
and  bigoted,  fosters  class  distinctions  and 
hatreds,  is  anti-republican,  and  its  standard  of 
instruction  is  infinitely  inferior  to  that  of  the 
public  schools. 

We  have  the  best  Catholic  authority  for  say- 
ing they  are  inferior.  ThQ  Freeman's  Journal 
and  Catholic  Register  for  March  12th,  1887,  com- 
plained of  the  parochial  schools,  where  it  said 
of  the  pupils:  "A  smattering  of  the  catechism 
is  supplied  to  fit  them  for  the  duties  of  life;" 
and  intimatea  that  the  schools  were  only 
"  apologies,  compromises,  systemless  pre- 
tences." 

Dr.  Orestes  A.  Brownson,  a  distinguished 
Catholic,  said  of  the  Roman  Catholic  schools 
{Brotvnson  s  Review) :  "  They  practically  fail  to 
recognize  human  progress.  .  .  .  They  do  not 
educate  their  pupils  to  be  at  home  and  at  their 
ease  in  their  own  age  and  country,  or  train 
them  to  be  living,  thinking,  energetic  men.  .  .  , 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  231 

They  who  are  educated  in  our  schools  seem 
misplaced  and  mistimed  in  the  world,  as  if 
born  and  educated  for  a  world  that  had  ceased 
to  exist.  .  .  .  The  cause  of  the  failure  of  what 
we  call  Catholic  education  is,  in  our  judgment, 
in  the  fact  that  we  educate,  not  for  the  pres- 
ent or  the  future,  but  for  the  past.  ...  an 
order  of  things  which  the  world  has  left  be- 
hind, for  it  could  be  reproduced,  if  at  all,  only 
by  a  second  childhood." 

The  Catholic  Review,  April,  1871,  gives  to  the 
world  this  revelation :  "  We  do  not  indeed 
prize  as  highly  as  some  of  our  countrymen 
appear  to  do,  the  ability  to  read,  write,  and 
cipher.  Some  men  are  born  to  be  leaders,  and 
the  rest  are  born  to  be  led.  The  best  ordered 
and  administered  state  is  that  in  which  the 
few  are  well  educated  and  lead,  and  the  many 
are  trained  to  obedience,"  etc.     Is  it  so! 

And  one  of  the  most  conclusive  reasons  why 
we  know  these  schools  to  be  inferior  is  that 
thousands  of  our  most  intelligent  Catholic 
citizens  defy  the  hierarchy  and  continue  to 
patronize   the   public    schools,   because    they 


232  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

know  their  superiority.  It  is  no  small  thinfj 
for  a  Catholic  to  defy  the  governing  clergy — 
it  means  often  social  ostracism,  hatred,  loss  of 
friends  and  even  the  means  of  support. 

It  has  been  truly  said,  that  the  purpose  of 
the  sectarian  parochial  school  is  to  make  obe- 
dient Catholics,  while  the  purpose  of  the  pub- 
lic free  school  is  to  make  good  citizens.  Now 
what  is  taught  in  these  sectarian  schools  in 
many  of  their  favorite  text-books  is  anything 
but  favorable  to  the  production  of  a  good  citi- 
zen. It  is  often  false  and  injurious  in  the  highest 
degree  to  the  mind  and  character  of  the  child. 
They  are  constantly  drilled  in  bigotry  and 
hatred  toward  other  denominations,  with 
whom  they  are  to  live  as  citizens  of  a  common 
government.  They  are  taught  to  hate  those 
they  do  not  understand,  and  to  avoid  their 
presence.  Let  me  quote  from  the  "  Catechism 
of  Perseverance  "  one  of  their  standard  books 
published  by  T.  B.  Noonan  &  Co.,  of  Boston, 
which  has  the  approval  of  four  bishops.  I 
quote  only  the  two  final  answers  on  the  lesson 
in  Chapter  LIV. 


THE   SCHOOL    WAR.  233 

"  Q.  How  do  you  show  that  Protestantism, 
or  the  religion  preached  by  Luther,  ZuingHus, 
Calvin,  and  Henry  VHI.,  is  not  the  true  relig- 
ion ? 

''A.  In  order  to  show  that  Protestantism  is 
a  false  religion,  or  rather  no  religion  at  all,  it 
will  be  sufficient  simply  to  bear  in  mind:  ist, 
that  it  was  established  by  four  great  libertines; 
2d,  that  it  owes  its  origin  to  the  love  of  honors, 
covetousness  of  the  goods  of  others,  and  the 
love  of  sensual  pleasures,  three  things  forbid- 
den by  the  Gospel;  3d,  that  it  permits  you  to 
believe  whatever  you  please  and  to  do  what- 
ever you  believe;  4th,  that  it  has  caused  im- 
mense evils,  deluged  Germany,  France,  Switz- 
erland, and  England  with  blood ;  it  leads  to 
impiety,  and  finally  to  indifference,  the  source 
of  all  revolutions,  past  and  future.  We  must, 
therefore,  be  on  our  guard  against  those  who 
preach  it,  and  cherish  a  horror  for  the  books 
which  disseminate  it. 

"  Q.  What  religion  is  it  that  alone  has  ren- 
dered men  better  and  alone  has  civilized  them? 

"y^.  The  only   religion   which  has  rendered 


234  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

men  better  and  civilized  them  is  the  CathoHc 
religion,  to  the  exclusions  of  Arians,  Mahome- 
tans, Protestants,  and  philosophers;  the  Cath- 
olic religion,  therefore,  alone  is  good,  alone 
divine." 

Bishop  Gilmour's  "  Bible  History"  is  a  book 
very  popular  in  these  sectarian  schools.  Hear 
what  this  book  says  of  the  reign  of  the  Tudors 
in  England.  The  career  of  Bloody  Mary  is 
not  mentioned  at  all  and  the  account  closes 
with  this  paragraph : 

"  Catholicity  has  ever  appealed  to  reason ; 
Protestantism,  like  Mohammedanism,  to  force 
and  violence.  In  England  and  Scotland  Prot- 
estantism was  forced  upon  the  people  by  fines, 
imprisonment,  and  death;  in  Germany  and 
Prussia,  Sweden,  and  Denmark  and  Norway, 
the  same.  In  America  the  Puritans  acted  in 
like  manner." 

Catholicity  has  ever  appealed  to  reason ! 
Did  Bishop  Gilmour  never  read  the  edict  with 
which  Alva  baptized  the  Netherlands  in  blood? 
This  edict  directed  that  all  Protestants 
should  be  executed;    the  men  with  the  sword, 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR.  235 

the  women  to  be  buried  alive,  provided  they 
do  not  persist.  That  is,  if  they  should  recant 
they  would  be  granted  the  sweet  privilege  of 
such  a  death — the  women  to  be  buried  alive 
and  the  men  to  be  butchered  with  the  sword! 
But  if  they  persisted  they  were  to  be  burned 
with  fire,  and  in  either  case  all  their  property 
should  be  confiscated.  The  story  of  how  this 
edict  was  executed  is  one  of  the  most  sicken- 
ing chapters  in  the  story  of  the  human  race. 
During  the  six  years  of  Alva's  reign,  his  exe- 
cutioners put  to  death  18,000  persons,  besides 
the  victims  in  cities  captured  by  his  troops  and 
the  hosts  that  fell  in  battle.  Has  the  Bishop 
never  read  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
the  fires  of  the  martyrs,  or  the  Spanish  Inqui- 
sition? I  do  not  say  that  we  are  to  teach 
these  things  in  our  public  schools,  but  I  do  say 
that  if  the  state  must  pay  for  instruction  on 
these  points,  then  the  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth  must  be  taught! 

Take  their  most  popular  geographies,  pub- 
lished by  Sadlier,  Barclay  street.  New  York,  and 
used  in  most  parochial  schools.     Let  us  take 


236  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

some  three  questions  from  the  Lesson  on  the 
United  States.  The  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions are  freeh — they  are  startHng  news  to 
most  American  citizens  who  thought  they  had 
a  smattering  at  least  of  the  history  of  their 
country. 

"IV/io  were  the  first  explorers  of  great  por- 
tions of  our  country  ? 

"  CathoHc  missionaries. 

"  Who  discovered  and  explored  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi ? 

"  Father  Marquette,  a  Jesuit  missionary. 

"  Where,  in  many  of  the  States,  were  the  first 
settlements  formed  ? 

"Around  the  humble  cross  that  marked  the 
site  of  a  Catholic  mission."    (Page  22,  Lesson 

xxxn.) 

Mr.  Edwin  Mead  aptly  remarks  on  this  les- 
son : 

"  This  is  the  general  accownt  of  the  coloni- 
zation and  early  history  of  the  United  States. 
And  this  is  a  good  sample  of  the  proportion 
of  the  role  assigned  to  Jesuit  missionaries  all 
through  these  books.     You  have  heard  of  the 


THE   SCHOOL   WAR  237 

boy  who  once  asked  his  father,  who  was  for- 
ever telling  of  his  tremendous  exploits  at  Bull 
Run  and  Gettysburg  and  Cold  Harbor, 
"  Father,  did  anybody  help  you  put  down  the 
rebellion  ?  "  The  descendant  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Puritans  or  of  other  worthies,  whom  some 
of  us  have  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking  as 
standing  for  something  in  this  American  en- 
terprise, is  moved  to  ask  the  Jesuit,  when  he 
reads  of  all  his  accomplishments,  in  these 
books,  "Did  anybody  help  you  found  the 
American  republic  ?  " 

As  to  New  England  in  particular  we  have 
this  historic  revelation : 

"  What  was  the  first  settlement  in  the  Nezu 
England  States  ? 

"  A  Jesuit  mission  on  Mount    Desert  Island 
(in  1612). 

"  By  whom  zvas  this  settlement  destroyed? 

"  By  the  English. 

"  What  people  made  a  permanent  settlement  in 
Massachusetts  in  1620  ? 

"  The  Pilgrim  fathers 

"  Who  were  they  ? 


238  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

"  English  Protestants  who,  being  persecuted 
by  their  Protestant  fellow-countrymen,  took 
refuge  in  America. 

"  How  did  they  act  in  their  nezu  home  ? 

"  They  proved  very  intolerant,  and  perse- 
cuted all  who  dared  to  worship  God  in  a  manner 
different  from  that  which  they  had  established." 

Shall  the  public-school  fund,  levied  and 
raised  for  the  purpose  of  giving  men  and 
women  an  education  that  will  fit  them  for  the 
duties  of  life;  shall  this  fund,  the  people's 
money,  be  devoted  to  the  support  of  sectarian 
schools  where  monks  and  nuns  teach  such  stuff 
as  this  ?  When  this  question  is  fairly  before 
the  American  people,  the  answer  will  come  as 
the  roar  of  an  earthquake  to  the  ears  of  these 
meddling  priests!  Bismarck  said  that  the  sad- 
dest thing  he  saw  in  France  was  not  the  dead 
on  battle  fields,  but  mutilated  and  misleading 
text-books  on  the  tables  in  Catholic  schools. 
These  books  are  scattered  far  and  wide  in 
these  sectarian  schools  in  America,  doing  their 
deadly  work  in  the  minds  of  our  youth. 

IV.  We  can  never  agree  to  the  demands  of 


THE   SCHOOL    WAR.  239 

the  hierarchy,  because  their  plans  successful 
would  destroy  our  system  of  education,  thus 
stabbing  the  Republic  to  the  heart,  and  reunite 
Church  and  State. 

To  divide  the  school  fund  on  a  sectarian 
basis  would  not  be  simply  a  step  toward  the 
union  of  Church  and  State,  it  would  be  the 
consummation  of  actual  union.  Suppose  you 
divide  the  fund  on  the  per  capita  basis  of  the 
children.  Directly  into  the  hands  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical machine  will  fall  millions  of  dollars. 
Does  any  candid  intelligent  man  believe  for  a 
moment  those  ecclesiastics  would  devote  these 
enormous  sums  to  educational  purposes  ? 
Simply  the  cost  of  the  board  and  clothes  of 
the  hosts  of  monks  and  nuns  who  teach  in 
these  schools  would  be  the  extent  of  their 
expenditure.  It  would  be  inevitable  that  the 
money  would  go  directly  into  the  general 
treasury  under  the  control  of  the  bishop  and 
be  used  for  cJiurcJi  purposes !  We  have  already 
seen  that  this  fight  is  not  being  made  because 
of  the  zeal  of  the  machine  for  popular  educa- 
tion.    The   truth   is,  the  prize  for  which  this 


240  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

hierarchy  is  fighting  so  desperately,  and  prom- 
ises to  fight  still  more  desperately,  is  the  con- 
trol of  these  munificent  sums  of  money.  When 
they  get  their  hands  on  it,  what  will  become 
of  the  schools  ?  They  will  go  where  they  have 
gone  in  Italy,  in  Spain,  in  Mexico,  in  South 
America — to  the  devil!  where  they  have  ever 
gone  when  the  ecclesiastical  machine  has  been 
master  of  popular  education,  A  journal  under 
their  control  said  recently  in  a  three-column 
article  on  this  subject.  "  What,  then,  do  Catho- 
lics want  ?  Justice,  absolutely  nothing  but  jus- 
tice, equal  justice  for  all."  He  defines  this  "  jus- 
tice "  to  be  a  division  of  the  school  fund  on  a 
sectarian  basis.  This  plea  of  injustice  because 
parents  are  taxed  for  public-school  purposes 
whose  children  go  to  private  schools,  I  arraign 
as  the  climax  of  ignorance  of  our  institutions 
and  downright  selfishness.  To  say  the  least,  if 
it  be  not  rebellion,  it  is  a  sad  exhibition  of  un- 
patriotic sentiment.  Besides  there  is  not  one 
spark  of  justice  in  such  a  demand.  The  school 
tax  is  not  levied  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
to  the  individual  paying  the  tax  an  equivalent 


rilE  SCHOOL   WAR.  241 

in  education  in  his  own  family.  The  school 
fund  is  based  upon  a  different  principle  en- 
tirely. Test  the  question  and  see.  There  are 
thousands  of  old  bachelors  in  this  country  who 
are  heavily  taxed  for  school  purposes.  They 
receive  no  benefit  in  return  in  their  immediate 
families.  Then  I  demand  justice  for  the  old 
bachelors  of  this  country!  Divide  the  school 
fund!  Give  each  old  crusty  wretch  his  share! 
There  are  thousands  of  old  maids,  too,  who  are 
taxed  heavily  for  the  support  of  the  schools. 
Justice  for  the  old  maids!     Divide  the  fund! 

There  are  thousands  of  childless  couples  in 
this  country  who  are  taxed  heavily  to  support 
public  schools.  They  have  no  children  in  the 
schools.     Divide  the  fund  ! 

There  are  thousands  of  Baptists  and  Metho- 
dists and  Presbyterians  and  others  who  patron- 
ize private  schools  exclusively  who  are  taxed 
for  the  support  of  the  public  schools.  "  Equal 
justice  for  all !  "  Divide  the  fund  !  Give  each 
crank  a  chromo  for  the  maintenance  of  his 
crotchet!  And  let  posterity  take  care  of 
16 


242  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

itself!  "  Posterity!  " — what  has  posterity  ever 
done  for  tis  anyhow! 

Yes,  such  a  man  as  this  was  he  who  refused 
to  assist  in  the  purchase  of  a  new  hearse  for 
the  village.  The  committee  asked  him  why. 
He  replied:  "Well,  I  gave  ten  dollars  to  buy 
the  old  one,  and  neither  I  nor  my  family  have 
ever  had  the  use  of  it  a  single  time! " 

Such  is  the  supreme  selfishness  of  the  man 
who  would  divide  this  fund  raised  for  the  com- 
mon weal  — a  selfishness  so  cankerous  that  it 
fain  would  eat  up  the  victim  who  proclaims  it 
when  other  food  has  failed!  This  money  is 
raised  by  the  state  as  a  life  insurance  fund. 
The  life  of  the  state  rests  on  universal  suffrage. 
Universal  suffrage  is  a  possibility  only  when 
supported  by  an  universal  education — and  no 
such  education  has  ever  been  given,  or  can  be 
given  save  by  the  state. 

Prate  to  me  of  individual  rights  here!  Care 
you  nothing  for  the  life  of  this  glorious  free 
Republic,  the  asylum  of  all  nations,  the  refuge 
of  an  oppressed  world  ?     Shall  we  allow  it  to 


2'HE   SCHOOL   WAR.  243 

be  stabbed  to  the  heart  in  a  mad  fight  between 
sectarian  brawlers  ? 

We  have  no  army,  no  navy  worthy  of  the 
name,  no  frowning  ramparts  along  our  coasts 
to  withstand  the  ironclads  of  the  Old  World, 
and  yet  we  are  the  mightiest  nation  of  earth — 
the  last  nation  in  all  the  roll  of  nations  against 
which  a  foreign  power  will  dare  to  draw  the 
sword !  And  why  ?  Because,  we  have  not  in- 
vested in  steel  guns,  granite  masonry  or  brass 
buttons,  but  in  free  boys  and  free  brains! 
Shall  the  foundations  of  this  glory  be  de- 
stroyed ?  Shall  we  re-enact  the  dismal  fail- 
ures of  the  Old  World  ?  The  American  peo- 
ple must  answer.  I  have  no  fear  as  to  what 
that  answer  will  ultimately  be.  But  it  is  time 
now  that  answer  should  begin  to  formulate 
itself  in  an  overwhelming  demand  that  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  every 
State  of  the  Union  there  shall  be  a  clause, 
specifically  forbidding  that  a  single  cent  of  the 
people's  money  shall  ever  be  appropriated  to 
sectarian  purposes,  either  under  the  guise  of 
charity  or  education. 


244  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 


THE   SOUTHERN   QUESTION. 

SOME   DIFFICULTIES   OF  THE   SITUATION. 

[An  address  before  the  New  England  Paint 
and  Oil  Club  at  their  44th  dinner  at  the  Hotel 
Thorndike,  Boston,  as  reported  by  the  Bostoji 
Daily  Herald,  April  14th,  1889.] 

The  44th  dinner  of  the  Paint  and  Oil  Club 
of  New  England,  at  the  Thorndike,  last  even- 
ing, was  attended  by  about  fifty  members  and 
a  dozen  or  more  guests,  among  the  latter  being 
Rev.  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  pastor  of  the  Dudley 
Street  Baptist  Church,  and  formerly  a  member 
of  the  North  Carolina  Legislature.  An  enjoy- 
able reception  of  half  an  hour's  duration  was 
held  in  the  parlors,  after  which  the  company 
repaired  to  the  banquet  hall,  where  an  admira- 
ble dinner  was  served.  The  after-dinner 
speaking  was  inaugurated  by  President  Daniel 
G.  Tyler,  who,   in   introducing   the   principal 


THE    SOUTHERN  QUESTIOX.  245 

guest  of  the  evening,  said:  "The  Southern 
problem  has  been  an  interesting  question  to 
all  close  observers  of  national  affairs  since  the 
war.  Our  guest  this  evening  was  born  upon 
the  soil  of  the  Old  North  State,  has  served  in 
her  Legislature  and  in  other  posts  of  trust, 
and,  after  living  in  the  North  for  a  number  of 
years,  comes  to-day  to  give  us  the  benefit  of 
his  experience  and  thought  upon  the  subject." 

Rev.  Mr.  Dixon's  Speech. 

Rev.  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  on  being  thus  pleas- 
antly presented,  spoke  substantially  as  follows: 

What  do  I  mean  by  "  The  Southern  Ques- 
tion ?  '*  Certainly  not  what  the  sectional  mono- 
maniac has  in  mind  when  he  uses  the  expres- 
sion. If  by  "  Southern  question  "  you  mean 
the  supposed  problem  of  crime,  violence,  and 
semi-civilization,  as  presented  in  the  cock-and- 
bull  stories  you  hear  of  the  South — then  I 
have  no  time  to  discuss  such  a  question,  for 
such  a  problem  exists  only  in  the  distorted 
fancy  of  ill-informed  men.  By  "  Southern 
question  "  I  mean  the  sectional  question,  and 


24^  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

the  problem  of  it  is,  how  can  sectionalism  be 
eliminated  from  our  national  life,  social,  eco- 
nomic, and  political  ?  If  this  is  a  union,  unity 
should  be  the  cardinal  principle  of  national 
life,  and  sectionalism  is  a  monstrosity.  The 
South  and  North  should  stand  related  to  each 
other,  politically  and  commercially,  as  the 
Eastern,  Western  and  Middle  States  are  re- 
lated. 

What  are  some  of  the  difficulties  that  stand 
in  the  way  of  such  an  obliteration  of  sectional 
lines  ?     I  can  dwell  on  but  two  this  afternoon. 

I.  Mutual  m-isunderstanding.  The  North 
does  not  understand  the  South.  The  South 
does  not  understand  the  North.  The  igno- 
rance of  the  average  northerner  as  to  the  real 
condition  of  the  South  has  been  to  me  a  con- 
stant source  of  amazement.  What  are  the 
chief  causes  of  these  misunderstandings? 

ia)  The  federal  office-holders  in  the  South 
under  Republican  admiinistration.  The  con- 
crete idea  of  the  North  has  been  presented  to 
the  South  in  the  personality  of  the  carpet- 
baggers, turncoat  Democrats,  and  general  rap- 


THE   SOUTHERN  QUESTION.  247 

scalHons  who  have  been  honored  with  office 
under  Republican  Presidents,  The  most  po- 
tent cry  ever  raised  in  the  South  on  a  national 
question  was  "Turn  the  rascals  out."  They 
meant  the  rascals  at  home,  who  used  their  offi- 
ces to  domineer  over  and  insult  the  people 
whom  they  were  placed  there  to  serve.  The 
civil  service  given  the  South,  exept  under 
Cleveland's  administration,  has  been  simply 
infernal.  There  have  been  some  good  men 
among  them,  but  they  were  the  exception  to 
the  rule.  The  finest  stroke  of  policy  yet  made 
by  President  Harrison  was  when  he  sent  home 
the  other  day  the  forlorn  groups  of  chronic 
office  holders  and  office  seekers  from  South 
Carolina.  Such  a  policy  is  a  first  step  toward 
breaking  a  solid  South. 

{p)  Cranks.  Hot-headed,  ill-advised  men, 
thirsting  for  a  sensation,  and  determined  to 
make  one,  plunge  into  the  South  for  a  week 
or  two,  and  return  to  the  northern  platform 
loaded  with  wind  and  exclamation  points. 
They  strut,  and  bellow,  and  shriek.  "  What 
are  you  going  to  do  about  it?"     And  some- 


248  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

times  the  very  elect  are  deceived  by  the  noise 
into  believing  that  something  ought  to  be 
done !  Such  a  D.D.  recently  spent  a  few  weeks 
South.  He  returned  with  a  pain  he  knew  not 
where,  with  the  griping  sensation  as  yet  un- 
located,  but  with  a  determination  to  be  heard 
or  die.     God  save  the  South  from  her  friends! 

(<r)  Knaves.  There  are  men  who  deliber- 
ately seek  to  deceive  you  on  such  questions. 
The  day  before  the  last  election,  the  Nezv 
York  Tribune  contained  a  long  dispatch  from 
Raleigh,  N.  C,  stating  that  the  town  was  in  a 
state  of  riot  and  bloodshed ;  that  the  negroes 
were  being  driven  from  the  place,  shots  were 
being  exchanged  and  that  there  was  urgent 
need  of  troops.  Every  word,  every  syllable, 
every  letter,  every  dot  on  every  i  in  the  article 
was  a  lie  out  of  whole  cloth,  as  testified  to  by 
the  mayor  and  council,  among  whom  were 
four  distinguished  negro  politicians. 

[d)  Politicians  who  trade  in  sectional  issues 
only.  The  day  for  those  men  is  rapidly  going 
by.     Some    of   them   still    remain,  North  and 


THE   SOUTHERN  QUESTIO.V.  249 

South.     Let  the  rising  young  men  of  the  na- 
tion set  their  feet  emphatically  on  all  such. 

{e)  Partisan  newspapers.  It  is  a  sad  fact 
that  we  have  so  many  newpapers  in  both  sec- 
tions whose  business  it  seems  to  be  to  misrepre- 
sent each  other  and  everything  on  the  other 
side.  Thousands  of  our  best  people  read  only 
these  papers,  and  must,  of  necessity,  see  every- 
thing in  a  distorted  light.  They  create  and 
feed  a  morbid  appetite  for  sensational  and 
highly  exaggerated  matter  on  those  questions. 
I  am  oftentimes  disgusted  at  the  attempt  of 
our  independent  newspapers  to  straddle  the 
universe  on  questions  of  grave  importance  to 
preserve  their  independence,  yet  with  all  their 
faults  I  thank  God  for  them.  They  form  to- 
day the  only  means  of  communication  between 
the  sections,  and,  it  seems  to  me,  mark  an  era 
in  the  progress  of  the  nation.  They  have  tem- 
pered the  tone  of  our  organs,  so  that  they  do 
not  scream  and  bellow  and  rattle  as  of  old,  but 
must  of  necessity  now  give  forth  sounds  more 
or  less  harmonious  and  reasonable.  And  the 
tune  grows  better  as  time  rolls  on. 


250  LI  VING  rR  OBLEMS. 

2.  The  second  great  difficulty  of  the  ques- 
tion I  mention  is,  "  The  negro  and  his  relation 
to  the  local  governments  of  the  South."  The 
rising  generation  of  the  South  never  knew  the 
negro  as  a  slave  and  does  not  hate  him  be- 
cause his  skin  is  black.  Why,  then,  do  the 
young  men,  as  well  as  the  old  men,  stand  as  a 
unit  in  the  determination  that  the  negro  shall 
not  as  yet  control  the  local  governments  ? 
Simply  because  they  know  he  does  not  repre- 
sent the  wealth,  virtue,  and  intelligence  of  the 
community,  and  because  they  knov/  that  negro 
supremacy  in  State  or  county  means  bank- 
ruptcy, ruin,  disgrace,  and  corruption.  I  have 
no  apologies  to  offer  for  the  interference  with 
the  negro  vote  that  has  characterized  certain 
sections  of  the  South  in  times  past.  These 
things  are  mostly  traditions  now,  and  it  is  my 
earnest  conviction,  after  living  in  New  York 
and  Boston,  that  there  are  as  many  crimes  of 
one  sort  and  another  committed  against  the 
ballot  in  the  North  as  in  the  South,  taking  the 
sections  as  a  whole.  But  what  was  the  cause 
then  of  intimidation  and  trickery  in  the  South  ? 


THE  SOUTHERN  QUESTION.  25 1 

Take  North  Carolina  as  an  example.  Imme- 
diately on  the  enfranchisement  of  the  hordes 
of  ignorant  slaves,  and  before  the  political  dis- 
abilities of  the  whites  were  removed,  the 
negroes,  under  the  leadership  of  adventurers 
and  villains,  took  possession  of  the  state  gov- 
ernment and  the  county  governments  of  about 
forty  counties.  They  wrecked  the  state  gov- 
ernment in  short  order,  stole  everything  they 
could  get  their  hands  on,  even  to  the  school 
fund,  and  the  United  States  land  script  fund, 
issued  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  fraudulent 
bonds,  raised  what  money  they  could  on  them 
and  stole  that.  The  governments  of  these  forty 
counties  were  even  more  hopelessly  wrecked. 
The  county  script  was  not  worth  the  paper  it 
was  written  on,  and  the  land  was  taxed  to 
nearly  its  full  rental  value,  and  land  was  the 
only  capital  the  people  had.  What  were  the 
people  to  do  in  these  forty  black  counties  ? 
Sell  out  and  leave?  They  couldn't  sell.  No- 
body would  buy.  Lands  worth  $20  an  acre 
could  not  have  been  sold  for  fifty  cents.  They 
did  what   you  would   have   done — they  took 


252  LIVING  PROBLEMS. 

possession  of  their  local  governments — they 
had  to  do  it  or  give  up  the  struggle  of  life. 
They  violated  the  Constitution  you  say?  Per- 
haps they  did  sometimes.  But  self-preserva- 
tion is  the  first  law  of  nature  and  antedates 
the  Constitution  somewhat.  They  said  it  was 
not  right  that  pauperism  and  vice  and  igno- 
rance should  rule  wealth  and  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence, and  that  all  the  constitutions  of  the 
earth  couldn't  make  it  right.  After  all,  didn't 
you  teach  them  the  lesson  ?  A  distinguished 
senator  of  the  North,  when  driven  to  the  wall 
by  the  relentless  logic  of  Calhoun  on  the  Con- 
stitution, it  is  said,  replied  :  "  The  Constitution 
be  d — d  !  "  The  Constitution  did  stand  between 
the  slave  and  his  freedom.  You  said  it  was 
not  right,  smashed  it  to  atoms  and  made  it 
over  again.  I  thank  you  for  doing  it.  You 
said  the  Constitution  was  not  divine  before  the 
war.  Could  you  expect  these  Southern  men, 
whose  very  lives  depended  on  the  issue,  to 
accept  it  as  divine  after  the  war  ? 

This  dark  cloud  of  the  possibility  of  local 
corruption  and  bankruptcy  and  ruin  hangs  like 


THE  SOUTHERN  QUESTION.  253 

a  pall  over  the  South,  and  makes  the  white 
race  stand  together  as  a  solid  unit  to-day. 
The  enfranchisement  of  the  negro  race  turned 
loose  too  much  power.  It  forced  the  Southern 
people  to  go  into  politics  rather  than  into 
business — their  life  depended  on  it.  The  white 
Republican  party  recently  organized  in  Ala- 
bama is  the  dream  of  a  fool.  The  white  race 
cannot  divide  until  the  negroes  first  divide. 

All  this  I  say  with  the  kindliest  and  tender- 
est  feelings  for  the  negro  race.  Yes,  I  say  it 
by  the  memories  of  the  dear  old  nurse  in 
whose  arms  the  weary  head  of  my  childhood 
so  often  found  rest,  at  whose  feet  I  sat  and 
heard  the  sad  story  of  the  life  of  a  slave  until 
I  learned  to  hate  slavery  as  I  hate  hell. 

What  would  I  give  as  the  solution  of  the 
Southern  question?  Pass  the  Australian  ballot 
system  or  a  good  educational  qualification  for 
suffrage  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  it 
will  disfranchise  two-thirds  of  the  negroes  and 
one-third  of  the  whites  in  the  South,  the  terror 
of  negro  misrule  will  disappear,  and  with  it,  I 
believe,  sectionalism. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01245   3504 


Date  Due 

i'ML, 

....mmmm^ 

- 

ILL 

7-2^^03 

<|) 

^y». : 


':    "'!% 


1^ 


>■■;%, 


?iS 

*'■"•  la*?'- 

^H 

:':^^^ 

n 

^.-  •  t-^^. 


